A family run, some training, and perspective.

“Do more than belong: participate. Do more than care: help. Do more than believe: practice. Do more than be fair: be kind. Do more than forgive: forget. Do more than dream: work.” 
― William Arthur Ward

Another week, another long run. Well, this week is a recovery week, so it was more of a longish run (16km). Since my last post, I am mostly focused on resting, eating well and getting my workouts done. I often take a short 20-30 minute nap in the afternoon (I work mornings and evenings). Still, it's all getting done. Bonus - When I first started my current strength training program (I do this once a week, after spinning, at the gym) I could not do one single girl's pushup on the ground! I had to resort to doing my pushups up against the wall. However, after slowly doing more and more of my pushups on the ground, yesterday, for the first time I did all 45 pushups on the ground (that is 3 series of 15 pushups). Yes, they are "girl" pushups, but believe me, I am extremely proud of my progress!!

Asthma update: One really good thing is that my lungs are doing well these days. Although I still take inhalers, I have been able to reduce the number of puffs per day, which is excellent. 

La Virée des LaLa! :)

After our run on the mountain a few weeks ago, my brother (the one who had the flesh eating bacteria a few years ago and almost lost his leg) enjoyed it so much that he decided he wanted to try and organize a run with cousins and family. We rarely get together with our cousins, and some of them we barely know. He has remained extremely aware that today is all you can be sure of and so within a month the run was organized. The name of the run was called "La virée des LaLa" because both our parents' last names begin with the letters "La" so "LaLa"! Two cousins and their families came down from 7 and 9 hours away up north (Abitibi) and another from about an hour away, along with both of our families. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time. We then all went to my brother's house for brunch...and were joined by our mom and her husband. My brother achieved his goal of uniting family in an active and fun way. It was a huge success and I know for a fact that a few other cousins are seriously considering starting to run so they can join us "next year"!!

Raise your hand if you're ready to go! :)

And we're off...

My brother leading the pack with one of our cousins. She has her own story. She has lost 45lbs since she started running a little over a year ago! 

It was truly a beautiful place to run :)

Finally, I just finished this book called "Until I say Goodbye" by Susan Spencer-Wendel...She is a woman who has ALS - Lou Gehrigs disease, and has chosen to live her last years with joy. She is a wife and the mother of three young children and she is just admirable! An extremely inspiring and strong woman, who definitely puts symptoms of menopause into persceptive :)

Cheers!

Hormones (or lack thereof) men consider yourselves warned ;)

“Some changes look negative on the surface but you will soon realize that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge.” 
Eckhart Tolle

It's already been three weeks since I last blogged. Overall, marathon training continues to go relatively well. 

A nice mountain run with Uber H, my bro et my SSIL.

It was tough on some of the climbs, but we flew on the downhills!

Today was our longest run in this training cycle...almost 25km, and althought it went okay, I felt tired through most of it. However, our pace managed to stay the same and we chatted almost constantly. Although sometimes, I just listened :)

Here's the little fountain I mentioned  where we go rinse our hands and face. That picture is from two weeks ago...since then, I've lowered my fuel belt to the hips (not as stable) because it was chafing at my waist.

Lately, I have some good runs, but also some difficult runs. Lots of ups and downs, like my energy level these days. I was hesitant about addressing the issue of menopause this week...but, coincidentally, the Mother Runners decided to talk about it a few days ago. However, it was talked about with humour and not very seriously. Which is totally fine, but not what I was looking for. I'm in my mid-fifties and had not been very symptomatic so far. I was feeling lucky, "No not me, I don't really have any bothersome symptoms". Not anymore! It seems that things have changed over the last month and the hardest part is the general feeling of fatigue that overtakes me sometimes. I'm finding it harder to get out there for my weekday runs...and the long runs are often harder to get through than just a few months ago. Also, on long run days, I know I won't get much else done, because I need the whole rest of the day to recover. This partly explains my lack of motivation to sit and write a blogpost. Thank goodness the fatigue is not constant, it tends to come and go over the day, but I'm not enjoying the drain and mild nausea that sometimes accompanies the fatigue. So...what's your secret ladies? How do you deal with the fatigue, the hot flashes, the headaches, and training?

Myself, I've been very diligent about getting to bed between 9:30 and 10pm. I try to eat enough protein and, well, enough healthy food! I've added a day off to my work schedule every second week. I still get out there and complete my workouts. Even if I'm tired, I still get them done. It's just rarer that the workouts feel easy. Oh and in case you're wondering...I just had my annual check up and all is good - no anemia, and thyroid, cholesterol, blood pressure are all good. Only difference from previous months - this is definitely TMI for the men and some women, but hey let's be real...the biggest difference is a period that never ends (it's been on and off since July 23rd)...this has never happened before. 

What's happening though is that this is affecting me mentally, not just physically. I'm worrying that the long runs will be too difficult and that now may not be a great time to run a marathon. That's on the one side, on the other side, I'm just trying not to think...getting out there and doing what I have to do and hoping that it all works itself out.

Like many of you, I write this blog for myself mostly, to be able to read back and see what went well and what didn't and how it turned out. I felt this was important to remember when I looked back on this marathon training cycle. Thanks for any input you may have!

Cheers!

Every day is a new dawn!

"With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts."

Eleanor Roosevelt

Last Friday, my Super SIL and I had 22km on the program. We slept in (NOT) and then headed out at 06:30. The weather was perfect and although I felt a little tired, I was confident that it would be another nice long run spent chatting away with my SSIL. However, it wasn't one of those runs, I started not feeling great by around 8K and the feeling came and went. By the last few kilometers, I suggested that we shorten the time between our walk breaks (we usually do 14/1 - we switched to 9/1). It was a difficult run, by the end I wasn't chatting much at all and I was happy to be done with it. 

Here we are post-22K...I'm smiling, but that's because I was done!

Last week was another vacation week. I ran by the ocean, I ran in the rain and I hiked some more. Despite a chilly start, we had some nice weather and were able to enjoy the Bic National Park trails. Our cottage was by the ocean, we were staying with friends, and it was just a really nice break. 

Love being in the woods and hiking!

Today was another long run. This week, we had the shortest of 24km or 2h25m on the program. Once again, we were out there at 06:30. I hadn't slept too badly, but not great either...I think I was a little worried about how it would  go if I didn't sleep well, so of course I didn't sleep great. Anyways, off we went and I was feeling really good. We got caught in some rain, but it didn't last, and it was actually refreshing. We chatted non-stop and the kilometers just flew by. You'd think I was a different person from last week. I felt strong and extremely comfortable through the whole 2h25m...for a total of 21.1km. Actually, we ran an extra 50 seconds in order to reach .1 and make it a complete half-marathon. You know you're a runner when... ;)

Here we are enjoying a post-run breakfast!

Overall, training continues to go well as we reach the 1/4 point. Today was the beginning of week six of our program and once again, I'm amazed at how well my body is holding up (touch wood)! 

Cheers!

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!!