Spiceless

If variety is the spice of life, I’m beginning to feel like my running is a plain baked potato with no added salt. Most of my running is in the morning before work, which is the best time I can fit it in, since afternoon/evening running is usually synonymous with staying home on the couch in my world. So because I’m stuck to running in the morning, my options of creativity are limited by the following for most of my runs:

-30 minutes total time from warm-up to cool down

-Brizzy

There are no nearby hills and not a lot of really good running routes. I miss the days where I lived next door to the extensive river pathways of Calgary! But more than anything, I miss my running buddies! Any running buddies! The four-legged one I have now just isn’t the best conversationalist.

There is one park nearby which takes me about 15 minutes to run through end to end to end to end (it’s a bit like a pinwheel path). So today I ran that route. Twice through. I did my own little pyramid run,  just for something different.

                          5 min – hard effort          5min – hard effort

              5min – moderate effort                         5min – moderate effort

5min – easy effort/warm-up                                          5min – easy effort/cool down

Brizzy rather enjoyed himself off-leash: he would sniff to his little doggy heart’s content and then race after me. By the last 10 minutes, he was sticking pretty close. I clipped him on to the leash for the cool down to remind him of what it means to run on a leash, and he behaved beautifully after being so worn out.

So today I may have added just a tad bit of seasoning to my baked-potato running, but what I really need is to add some hot sauce. If anyone knows of a good hot sauce recipe for running with a dog in a 30min time limit, let me know!

7 minutes

The other day I ran for 7 minutes. It wasn't my intention when I set my alarm clock the night before. In fact, I was planning to have a solid 30 minutes. But I woke up and definitely was not wanting to run. I dragged myself out of bed and outside.
It was FREEZING!!! I knew if I went back inside to add layers I wouldn't get back outside, so I started running to warm myself up. But I just wasn't feeling it. I was tired, I was cold and...weird as it sounds, I actually missed taking the dog for his morning walk! So I turned around, added extra layers, and took out Brizzy for a nice brisk walk instead. We had a great time.
And I'm not sorry I stopped when I did. Some days are like that, and that's okay.

Living the Longer Life

I face a dilemma this week. But first, let me set the stage: From Monday to Thursday I get up at 5.45am with my husband and walk the dog while he leaves for work. I dislike the early starts, but it’s nice to get the dog out and sometimes I even take the little pest for a run. But this week my husband is not working, so now the dilemma: enjoy the deliciousness of sleeping in until 7am, or enjoy the novelty of running without the little rugrat dragging along beside me?

Today I forced myself out of bed to get a solid 30-min run in. It was a lot like my last dog-free run: short, sweet, and easy peasy. But while I may be slower than a slug crawling through honey, at least I have the joy of knowing I am living longer! Not that it’s a motivation or an inspiration to get me out of bed, but it’s an entertaining thought if nothing else.

As I get back to running (slowly) I’m starting to think towards the Future. There’s a 10k race coming up in September. And next year…next year my sister sent me a little earworm. Full triathlon? Which put that little niggle back in my head…when am I going to draw up the courage to get to the elusive, the inspiring, the powerful full marathon. It’s a delightful tickle in my mind, but with one big caveat: where, oh where, am I going to find amazing running/training buddies to help me along that journey? And no, Brizzy is not up for that task! I’d need to adopt a border collie or similar for that.

Easy Forward

When I went paddling down the Grand Canyon river, the guides instructed us on three types of paddling:

Easy Forward – ~50% effort or less. This stroke was meant to maintain energy and was used for flat water and minor rapids.

Forward - ~70% effort. You used a bit more muscle to maneuver  the raft. This was used to propel you through the larger rapids.

Hard Forward – +100% effort. Paddle like there’s no tomorrow or risk being thrown into the icy, churning waters.

I think you could relate running to these three models as well. As such, today was an ‘Easy Forward’. I didn’t run long, I didn’t run hard. And no, I definitely did not run intervals. I took the reluctant pup out to a park and ran for 25min without stopping. There was no Forward or Hard Forward effort to my run. It was easy and fun and short and sweet. Because not every run needs a training goal. Some days, it's about moving forward at an easy pace.

Intervals There, Intervals Here, Intervals Coming Out My Ear

I was very excited to go on a Brizzy-free run on the weekend. Russell promised to walk the dog so I could get a nice distance run in. Okay...distance for me would likely be around 45 minutes at this stage. But the point was, it would be a run without a puppy tugging on the leash or stopping to poop or stopping to smell a bush or just plain stopping because he didn't want to run any more. This run would be all about me.
Until Russell got sick. Then I was left with two choices: run with the dog, or skip the run altogether and just walk the dog.

So I snapped on Brizzy's leash and off we went. I went to one of the nearby parks. It has a little trail that goes around a pond. I estimate the trail loop to be around 600m. Not sooo far, but a decent enough place for intervals.
I admit, I'm a little sick of intervals! They're the easiest type of run to do with a little minion learning to run, but it feels like that's all I do lately.

Nevertheless, off I went. The goal: 5 laps, with 1 lap walking between each for recovery.
Lap 1 - 2:52. Okay, I told myself. Keep all laps UNDER 3:00min.
Lap 2 - 2:49
Lap 3 - 2:48
Lap 4 - 2:48
Lap 5 - 2:47

Woohoo! Sooo happy I pulled it off. I convinced my brain that if I did my last lap in over 2:50 I would have to do a sixth lap. Then the entire way around that last loop I repeated the mantra, "quick arms, quick legs! Quick arms, quick legs!" I put the focus on moving my arms rather than my legs, and it worked beautifully. No Lap 6 for me this time!

Brizzy had had it after Lap 3, and kept nosing me to go home. I'd had it after Lap 3 as well, but I couldn't renege on my promise! Okay, there are plenty of times when I renege on my running promises, but not this time! I jogged home feeling exhausted and triumphant. Brizzy laid down and didn't move the rest of the day.

Simply Short

I've come to appreciate that I like to dedicate 1 hour to a run + 30minutes for post-run necessities (shower, food, etc.). This doesn't mean I actually run for an hour. This means I like at least an hour for warm-up, cool down, walking breaks, etc.
I realized that this morning when I got up. I had been planning to go for a run, and then I looked at how much time I had before Russell and I had to leave for another engagement...1 hour and 15 minutes. So if I needed the full 30minutes for post-run necessities, that left 45 minutes for the actual run.
Hmm, I told myself. That's not a lot of time. And then I told myself, don't be silly! Just go out and do something short.
So I got myself and the dog up and ready and off we went. I admit, it was a bit disappointing. I allotted myself 20 minutes of running time. Then there's warm-up, cool-down, dog-poop-pick-up, and dog-being-bratty time added onto the list. We made the 20 minutes. It wasn't fast, it wasn't a tough work-out. I didn't have any real sense of I DID IT. But some days, that's the way the cookie crumbles. Mmmh...cookies! Time for some cookie dough.

To Mom, Love Brizzy

A letter from Brizzy (translated from Bark and possibly slightly anthropomorphized):

Dear Mom,

You’re weird. What is it with this ‘Jog’ command? You go too fast for me to sniff all the p-mail in the neighbourhood and too slow to really stretch the legs. You don’t chase balls. You don’t even chase birds. And then you start telling me numbers. “3 more minutes, then you can have a sniff break.” I’m a dog mom! Numbers don’t exist. Unless I’m counting how many treats you give me. You may not believe me, but it’s true. I count treats every time you give them to me and they number Not Enough.

But back to this Jog business. I don’t think you really know what you’re doing. You make it so complicated. Let me simplify it for you:

Chase the bird! Chase the ball! Chase the ----oooooh! Why hello to you too, 3 year old Bailey. Thank you for the p-mail. Allow me to respond in kind.

Don’t feel too bad, Mom. Just follow me and I’ll show you how it’s done. Try to keep up, please. And throw more balls. They’re motivating!

Love,

Brizzy

Healthy-ish

Another sprint interval day. The ground was wet, but the heart (and dog) were both willing. I structured it more this time: 10x 1min sprints with a 1min break between I sort of wish I lived near a hilly park! I do love my hills. I didn’t time myself, I didn’t try to ensure my last sprint was as fast as my first sprint. It was about giving me and my pup some fitness challenges in the morning. Note to self: my back is getting worse in terms of tightness, but my pants haven’t shrunk any more. I should probably lay off the cookie dough, though. It couldn’t hurt to add some healthy-ish eating to my running regime, right?

Stop Stopping

Run #2 had a simple goal: 30 minutes without stopping for a walk break. I brought a stopwatch, but not my Garmin. Which meant I could track my time but not my pace. I set off to explore the community. I wandered here, wandered there, ran around a park, ran around it again. Ran around the community and somehow found myself at the same park again, so ran it a third time. It wasn’t a riveting run. It wasn’t a strenuous run. It was just a run. I can’t remember the last time I’ve run 30 minutes non-stop! I know my pace slowed as my lack of fitness took over. I’m sure if I had tracked my distance I would shake my head in self-disdain at my slowness. But that’s all negative self- talk. On the positive side; I ran for 30 minutes. Even when I got tired, even when I got bored, even when I wanted to stop. I ran. For that I would like to thank all my amazingly fit Facebook friends. After seeing so many goals achieved and races run, I was starting to feel that I was missing out on life and just reading it through other people’s lives. I kept seeing pics of people going for a bike ride and thought, “I’d like to do that.” And others showing off their hard-earned finishers medals and thought “I’d like to do that, too.” And then I thought, “well, why aren’t I doing that? What’s stopping me?” The answer was simple: me. I was stopping myself. So now it’s time to stop stopping myself. Easier said than done.

The First "Mrs" Run

In the past couple of months I’ve quit my amazing job, gotten married, moved to a new city, and started a new job. Now, I’m not saying the word ‘excuses’ but I might think it loudly to myself! But despite the lack of running in my routine, I happened to be a very lucky bride! Between a decreased appetite from stress, weight-lifting twice a week with one of my awesome bridesmaids, and walking an energetic dog, I was a bride that somehow lost weight before the wedding without really going to any effort. Every time I put on my work pants I found I had magically shrunk a little bit more. I say this easily from behind my computer screen where no one can claw my eyes out from jealousy.

But then the honeymoon came, and the loneliness of moving to a city where I knew nobody, and my new husband was working crazy hours, and I didn’t have any workout buddies and…well, let’s just say I may never again be at the size I was on my wedding day. And I’m okay with that! But that doesn’t mean I want to lose all the valuable gains I’ve made the past few months. So, a tightening of pants combined with a rather stiff and painful back made me decide it was time to reinitiate my running.

How I miss running with buddies! But running groups in Fort Mac seem hard to come by, so I decided to start with the easiest running buddy I had available: Brizzy.

We started in one of those ‘unofficial’ off-leash parks near the house. I went out there with no watch, no set plan. Actually, I wasn’t planning to run at all when I stepped outside. But I found myself in my running clothes and just thought, why not? I decided on sprint intervals. I picked a bush in the distance and rant to it, then walked to recover. After a minute or so I picked another bush and ran to that one. My goal was not to achieve a disciplined training session. My goal was just to run. Run for the cost-effectiveness of not buying new pants, and run for the health benefits of mobilizing my back. Brizzy, of course, ran right with me joyfully. Okay, he trotted beside me wondering why his poor human was lurching around so slowly, but he seemed proud that I was joining him in one of his favourite activities, even if I wasn’t chasing a ball.