Hiking in the Adirondacks...and some running!

"Doubly happy, however, is the man to whom lofty mountain tops are within reach." 

John Muir

Today's post is mostly with vacation/hiking pictures.

Day 1: Top of Rocky Falls

The water was so clear and refreshing.

Day 2: Hiking up Cascade Mountain

Lots and lots of rocks.

Cascade Mountain Summit

It was a tough climb, but the rewarding view was extremely rewarding!

We even had a view of the Green Mountains and so I waved to ajh.

I may not have been showing the right mountains, but I thought of you :)

1 mile later, we had crossed over to the summit of Mount Porter.

A refreshing soak in Chapel Pond after over 4 hours of hiking.

There are so many beautiful places to experience in the Adirondacks!

Day 3: Exploring Whiteface Mountain - which we climbed by car.

After lunch in the Castle Café, we headed back home. It was only three days, but it was wonderful!

After a grand total of about seven hours of hiking between Tuesday and Thursday, Friday morning, I was up at 6am for my long run with my Super SIL. We had a "short" 16km long run as this is a recovery week. It's interesting that the more often we run together, the more we seem to have to talk about. I've noticed this phenomenon before with girlfriends. She's more up-to-date on what's happening in my life, and vice-versa. Therefore, conversation topics are easier to find as we catch each other up without having to start at the beginning. It's this having to start at the beginning that sometimes makes us avoid certain topics, as its more difficult to catch up in less than two hours, if it's been a while since we got together. I may have mentioned this before, but I'm really enjoying having a partner on my long runs :)

Cheers!

Week three already!!

Age is no barrier. It's a limitation you put on your mind.

Jackie Joyner-Kersee

During our 20km run early this morning.

Another week completed with success and I'm feeling good. It's hard to believe that, with today's long run, we are already beginning week three of our training program! I have a feeling we'll be standing on the starting line so much sooner than we can imagine.  

We started our run at 6am this morning, the weather was perfect, as was the company. It was one of those magical runs,,,exactly the kind that you are talking about when you tell everyone how much you love running. It felt wonderful to have 20km under our "fuel belt" ;) before 9am...to have the whole day ahead of us to enjoy. There's a special kind of smile on the face of someone who ran pretty much a half-marathon before the neighbors had breakfast :-) 

We followed that great run with brunch, together with our husbands...just perfect I tell you! 

In unrelated news, Uber H and I are going on vacation in the Adirondacks next week for three days...which means some cross-training for sure :) I'm looking forward to enjoying some hiking!

Cheers!

What a difference a training partner makes!

"It's when we start working together that the real healing takes place...it's when we start spilling our sweat, and not our blood."  David Hume

Being silly  - we ran 18km that morning, then spent the evening walking around at the Jazz Fest.

We were both pretty proud of our bodies, as we had no lingering pain :)

Running my last half-marathon with my daughter was an amazing experience. However, we did not complete the same training program (as it was her first) and so ran only one or two training runs together. Therefore, having completed my last training cycle mostly by myself, I am thoroughly appreciating having a training partner for this cycle. We don't do all our runs together, but Last Thursday, I had a really full day and we had a 40-minute run with 8 X 100m relaxed strides. My SSIL is a nurse and is used to getting up at the crack of dawn to go to work, so she suggested we go at 7am (before my crazy day started)...I know that for many of you 7am is almost mid-day :) but, for me, 7am is so much easier to do with a partner. 

The next day was our long run, most of which we will try and do together. With the crazy humidity and heat, we decided to head out at 6:45am for our 18km run. We'll probably have to go earlier than that when the runs are longer if it's that hot and humid! My SSIL suggested a new route, where we went by these huge and beautiful houses. Talk about an enjoyable distraction. One of them had a small waterfall coming from these low brick towers on each side of their driveway...so we went to the water and wet our hands and our face. It was so refreshing :) By the time we were at 14km, my SSIL, who barely sweats and therefore has a really hard time dealing with heat, was starting to find it tough. Luckily, in the summer, there are places to stop and refill water bottles. The first place we stopped, the water was tepid, but a few kilometers later we stopped at another fountain and the water was nice and cold. So, we poured water over our heads and body, refilled and felt better as we moved on. By the last two kilometers, I unexpectedly found myself encouraging my SSIL to stay strong and get this done. 

My SSIL gets me out there early in the morning, she is one tough lady, she is super healthy, she is a faster runner than I am and has many more years of running experience, but heat is her kryptonite. It evens out the field between us and allows me a turn at being her support system. Being able to motivate her and get her through the last few kilometers felt great, but mostly it was a revelation! It made me realize that together, we are stronger than the sum of our individual selves...as a team, we push each other to that next level. Our individual strengths come together and we form one powerful badass team! 

I love you SSIL...let's keep on rocking that marathon training!!

Cheers!

  

Marathon training begins TODAY!

“The beginning is the most important part of the work.”  Plato, The Republic

Before the run! My Super SIL and me :)

Today was the first run of our training program for the Philadelphia marathon, which is in November. How exciting it always is to start a new program! We have decided to do our long runs on Fridays. My SSIL is a nurse and works every second weekend and we both have Fridays off...so it's perfect. Also, it'll be nice to have the long run done, allowing us to enjoy some summer festivities on weekends :) 

The first long run of the program was a 1 hour 15 minute run at a pace 30 seconds slower than race pace. Nice and easy. It ended up pouring rain through most of our run, reminding us how truly hardcore we are!

After the run. Every piece of clothing is stuck to our skin!

After completing most of the long runs alone during my last training cycle, it'll be really great to have my SSIL as a partner for this round. Her pace is a bit faster than mine, but we'll only be doing the long runs together and those are mostly at a slow and easy pace. 

My goal for this marathon is to not be injured on the start line, and I would be thrilled to come in around 4h45m. That's the pace I'll be training for...and I know it's realistic. Of course, we never know what race day will bring, so we'll see.

Cheers everyone!!

First trail race - 9km and lots of mud!

"By leaving your comfort zone behind and taking a leap of faith into something new, you find out who you are truly capable of becoming." Unknown author

Before my first every trail race...socks and shoes are still nice and clean, and I'm feeling good about this new experience. Uber H ran with me and even carried the water for us...as well as took a few pics :)

(Left) This is the second loop on the bridge, we are more spread out. On the first loop, we had to stop because we could only cross one at a time. (Right) Most pictures taken during the run were like this one...blurry, but I was smiling.

Trying to sidestep some deep mud!

There was only one real technical difficulty and it was the MUD...serious crazy mud (it looked like it was done purposely). A few people lost their shoe and had to stick their hand in to pick it up. Messy! But really a lot of fun. The atmosphere on the trails is completely different than during a road race. Not better or worst, just different, perhaps a bit more variety and fun. I'm definitely going to try something like this again...hopefully with less mud holes.

After the race! :)

Cheers everyone!!!

Scotia Bank Half-Marathon Race Report!

"The goal you set must be challenging. At the same time, it should be realistic and attainable, not impossible to reach. It should be challenging enough to make you stretch, but not so far that you break."

Rick Hansen

We're off! :)

The things I could control, I did, the things I could not, well, they couldn't have gone any better. The weather was amazing, a sunny 65­F with a nice light breeze, just perfect. I was lucky enough to not be injured through this whole training cycle and on race day! The course was relatively flat and we ran next to the Olympic bassin, on trails, and on the F1 circuit...very cool. Only little blip is that my Garmin died on me, but luckily I wasn't alone. 

The most wonderful part of this whole race was being with my daughter. Just having her by my side was a huge boost. 

The first 10km truly flew by and we crossed the 10k mat in 1h01m53s, practically a 10k PR! It continued to go smoothly for another 3km, but by 14k, I was starting to find it more difficult to maintain my pace. I noticed that km 15 and 16 were my two slowest. As we neared km 17, I asked my  daughter how long we'd been going: Jess, "1h44m" - Me, "I don't think I'll make it" - Jess, "We'll make it mom, let's go" as she took my hand. When we crossed the 17K mark, she said, "We've got this mom, even if we go 7min/km we've got this." This was exactly what I needed to hear, and so I just took off again. All I kept thinking was, "It's all mental now, until the end, it's all mental." At this point, I realized that my daughter wasn't next to me. I knew that her knees were hurting her and that this was causing her grief, but she had made me promise to go for it if she had to slow down. She wanted this for me as much as I wanted it for myself and I knew I couldn't give in now. 

I didn't have my Garmin, so I didn't know how I was doing, but I knew I was pushing it as much as I could at this point. When I crossed the finish line, I knew I had done it, but I didn't know by how much. I waited for my daughter, who arrived a few minutes after me. She was under the 2:15 mark and she was so excited for me, even though she was hyperventilating a bit! 

My official time is 2h12m37s!!! A 5 minute 20 second PR!! 

I am so proud of my daughter for running her first half-marathon with me and for being there when I truly needed her. I love you so much Jess! Myself, I'm really proud of the fact that I followed through. I did the intensive training and achieved my goal...and because of my training, I have hardly any post-race pain, which is pretty cool!

Congrats to our whole group and thanks to my brother for being the official photographer!!

I love you all :)

Next up is a 9km trail race in June with Uber H! Then, at the end of June begins marathon training for Philly, which is in November. We will be celebrating my Super SIL's 50th birthday (she's second from the right on the photo). Another exciting event!

Thanks for your encouragement everyone!

Cheers!

Full on taper!

"Ability is what you are capable of doing.
Motivation determines what you do.
Attitude determines how well you do it."
Lou Holtz

Interestingly, my taper started last Sunday with a 24K long run...?! It was at an easy running pace, but still, it didn't seem like much of a taper. I did it and I was fine! It helped that Uber H joined me for the first 5K and then at the 10K mark, my brother P and my niece joined me for 10K. It was nice to have company as I've done most of my long runs alone.

The rest of the week was a little smoother, although Wednesday included some intervals. Today was a 12K long run with 10 minutes at race pace. Again I had company, as Uber H joined me and it went well. 

The rest of the week is relatively relaxed, although Wednesday includes five minutes at 5K pace and Thursday, which is only 20 minutes, includes 6 - 8 x 100 meter strides. Friday rest, Saturday 20 - 30 minute "jog" to loosen up and Sunday is the big day!

I've got the ability to run a half-marathon. My training program included nine long runs of 20K to 28K and I've officially run at least six. So I know I can do it.

I've definitely got the motivation and I've been lucky enough to remain quite motivated throughout my 23-week training program. Before I started this program, I was a bit worried that it would be too much, but I also felt that it was time to believe in my strength. Well, I did it, I completed this whole training cycle injury-free (so far) and I learned to trust my body. So I want to do well. 

All that's left is to make sure I have the right Attitude on race day. I want to push harder than I've ever pushed before in a race...I will run for all the Boston runners who were unable to finish their race, for the families who lost loved ones and for the injured. I tend to give in to my fears near the 18k mark, but this time, I want to find my inner STRONG and push it to the finish! I can do this!

On a totally different topic...I finally figured out how to get rid of calluses on my feet! I was worried that if I removed the calluses, I would then get blisters again. However, the calluses had gotten so thick that I was feeling pain on the outsides of my big toes. I figured it was best to try and do something about it. I found a tool that is like a wooden spatula with sand-paper on both sides (rough and smooth-ish). I soak my feet for about 10 minutes, then I rub the rough side on my callus, followed by the smoother side, and then I put foot cream on the callus followed by socks for the night to let my skin absorb the cream. It works really well and although I still have calluses (considering how thick they were) they are smaller. So, I am not worried about getting blisters, but I have no more pain on long runs. I know many of you probably already knew this, but I never read about it anywhere and I was really wondering if it was a good idea to do this...it was :)

Time for bed! It's harder to get to bed at a reasonable time as I'm less tired...taper madness has set in somewhat. I keep worrying that maybe my lungs are not doing so well and should I or shouldn't I take prednisone...and maybe it's a mild cold...or maybe it's my candida that's back in my throat...and I'm eating too much for the amount of exercise I'm doing...and am I resting enough...etc. It's not too bad though...I know these issues are mostly in my head! 

Cheers!