Last bike of the year???

I skipped run club last Wednesday because it was my turn for the nasty cold that has been going around. I was pleasantly surprised to be feeling better after a few days; everyone at work that had it was sick for weeks. I decided to skip running and just do a nice light ride on my stationary bike. For some reason every time I get on there I end up riding much harder than I planned. A "nice light ride" turned into 2 minute intervals of high resistance, including 1 minute at the highest resistance on the bike. So forget the easy ride but it was a good workout and I felt better afterwards. Feels like I sweated out the cold.

Sunday run - planned on about 10km. Went out with a few people but the person I was running with is trying to get over knee problems and decided to walk after 3.5km because she started to feel pain. Everyone else in the group was too fast so I was on my own for the rest of the run. The route was about 7km so I decided to add some. The added few km didn't go so well - my legs started to feel pretty tired. I took an extra walk break and decided to head back. Ended up doing 9km, average pace 8:03/km (almost the exact same pace as the half marathon). I need to work on making the shorter runs faster.

It was a beautiful day so after running I decided to go for a short bike ride. Rode about 10km. It was really nice - I'm really going to miss my bike over the winter.

The Sunday After

Sunday October 16th - first post race run.

Did 6km and decided to coin a new running acronym - the SSD (slow short distance). My competitve brain is already thinking about the Hypothermic Half Marathon in March and I'm already thinking about how I'm going to take 10 minutes off my time. Lucky I have a little common sense that told me the week after your first half is too early to start "training" for the next race. The purpose of this run was to shake out the legs and get moving again. It was a good run and since everyone out at run club is faster than me I had some time to reflect on the half marathon. Now I feel like I can say "I'm a runner". For everyone that point is different but for me it was the half marathon.

I DID IT!!

Sunday October 9th - I completed my first half marathon!

The weather was perfect, overcast 6c with no wind at the start. It did warm up and the sun came out for the last few kms. Spent mostof the first 8km with the slower 10km runners and the faster walkers. It seemed like every person I managed to catch had a 10km bib on. I was starting to think I would be all alone at the back. After 52mins the first of our friends running the full marathon, which started a half hour later, caught up to me (I really need to do some speed work and try to speed up). Over the next hour everyone, including my husband, caught up to and passed me. I know I'm slow so it didn't discourage me - it was nice to see everyone and kept me company for a while. Lots of very nice people encouraged me as they passed except one old guy that told me to "pick it up". I couldn't believe it! What made it even worse was the back of his shirt said he was running for his grandson that had passed away - you'd think he would be a nice person doing something like that for his family but he really put a damper on my run. Needless to say, he was the only person I didn't cheer for when he finished. I was tempted to go up to him afterwards and tell him that that was a crappy thing to do someone doing their first half marathon but decided not to, I wanted to enjoy this time!

Back to my run...I managed a nice steady pace and felt really good! Ran the entire race with no pain. I wonder if it was because I took an extra week to taper and skipped that 20km run or if it was the pre-race massage. Probably a bit of both. For the last 8 km there were 3 of us all trying to get in under 3 hours, it was nice to run with a couple of other people for a while since most of my training and this race I was alone. I felt great finishing but was disappointed that they ran out of medals. They gave me a ribbon and told me to register to get a medal in the mail. Went and had a quick bite to eat, grabbed the camera from the hotel room and watched all of our friends finish the full. It was a great day.

Sunday "Run" for the Cure

Since it's taper week we decided it would be nice to do the CIBC Run for the Cure 5km as a family with our 6 year old. He did this event last year, completed the Beat Bethoven 4km and the Kids Death Race 5km trail run so we know he can do the distance. After our usual rush to get out the door on time we arrive. As usual the stadium is chaos because this event has over 13,000 participants. The start is very crowded and there was no seperation of walkers and runners so there are runners everywhere trying to get around walkers (hmmmm wonder if I should mention this to the organizers? I know it's a fun run but it's not "fun" trying to run when you're surrounded by walkers). Our little guy does well for about a 1/2 km and then decides he doesn't want to do this today. Lawrence carries him on his shoulders, while he is running, for a bit but then decides with 1 week until the marathon he can't risk an injury. So we walk for about 4km listening to whining and crying, and how we are "damaging his legs". I'm sure other people looked at this little guy (he is pretty small for his age) crying and thought we were really mean parents expecting him to do this. He made it and has made an AMAZING recovery. So my 5km taper run turned into a walk.

It was a little scary because my shins were still hurting later. No one wants pain 6 days before a race. Put some ice on them for a while last night. Tomorrow I get my first sports massage - hopefully that works out some of the pain.