Thursday Training

Easy Run

Distance: 6.25mi Pace: 10:50/min Max Pace : 8:34 Duration : 1h06m04sec

Cross Training/Strength

“30 Day Shred”

Ran through the pounding rain, and even had to stop and call Emergency Services because of downed power lines along the way. The operators were teasing me because I was out at 6am running in the pouring rain. They’re probably right – I’m a little strange.

This was my first run with the new insoles and they seem really great – quite different from the old ones. I hope the adductor ickies go away now!

Wednesday Training

Easy Run

Duration : 1h02m29sec Distance : 6mi Pace : 10:24/min Max Pace : 8:19/min

Ran along the blacktop trail in the forest, and the first 2mi are at such a killer incline, I could hardly get above an 12min/mi. I do love that hill as much as I hate it I think. Because I usually get up before the sun, I’m really unaccustomed to the heat/humidity of the later part of the morning – and I sure felt it. It was nice to get all sweaty.

Strength/Cross Training : Jillian Michaels “30 Day Shred”

As expected, it was even more painful today, but good pain. It did seem to go much faster than yesterday, though. I’m surprised at how sore my calves are. Crosstraining is so great for showing you your weaknesses.

Tuesday : a run & a new DVD

Abs : 15 minutes runner’s abs circuit

Cross Training/Strength : Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred

Easy Run

Distance : 6mi Pace : 10:39 Max. Pace : 8:29 Duration : 1h03m54sec

My run felt fantastic, and despite getting to bed late that 5:30 a.m. alarm didn’t hurt at all. I think having Monday as a non-running day really refreshed me. I did my abs right after.

I was really excited about my new DVD arriving from the U.S. Due to money and schedule constraints, I can’t get to the gym for cross training, and tend to do circuit training with free weights, or sometimes a strength training or resistance training DVD at home. Not having refreshed my DVD collection in over 4 years, I was looking for something new, and after reading some great things about “30 Day Shred” on some of my favourite fit-vegan blogs, I decided to give it a shot.

I admit I had to google “Biggest Loser”, and had never heard of Jillian Michaels before, but that really doesn’t matter. I loved the workout – and I love when my ego is gently hip-checked into reality. I figured it would be a little easy, and frankly boring, but it was intense – the most intense consecutive 20 minutes I’ve had in a while (running 400m sprints is pretty intense for me, but that lasts under 2 minutes). I’m pretty happy with it, and we’ll see how it feels tomorrow.

Still having hip/adductor/TFL issues. Flared up after run yesterday. I get my new insoles tomorrow, and I’m really hoping they’ll be the solution.

No-Run Mondays

Cross-training today was a new circuit-training circuit that was way harder than I thought it would be. It was only made up of 4 exercises, but I was “kicking” front, side & back on one leg, than the other, between each exercise. Had my heart rate up and kept my muscles guessing. I forgot to time it, but I’m thinking about 30 minutes.

A Mini-Sunday Run

Easy Run

Distance : 5.5mi Pace : 10:34/min. Max. Pace : 8:51/min Duration: 58m09sec

Though Sunday is usually my long run day, I only did a little run today. As I explained yesterday, I headed up to Paris to meet Hannah of Bittersweet, visiting Paris with her family, and wanted to be sure to run long in good conditions, and not rushing because I needed to catch my train, etc. A good little run today.

A Saturday Long Run

Long Run/Easy Pace

Distance : 10mi Pace : 10:33/min Duration : 1h45m32sec

Wonderful run. I opted to swap my long run out because I’m heading up to Paris to hang out with Hannah of Bittersweet tomorrow, and I’d rather not have to get up at 5 o’clock a.m. to get this baby in. Don’t get me wrong, I get up most other days at 5, so it’s doable, but we’re having friends for dinner tonight and I know I won’t be in bed until after midnight, so best to move things around.

This was the first 10-miler since the accident that felt really, really good. I wasn’t dreading the last three miles like I have been. The adductors are still ‘not right’ and it’s funny how the progression is so clear : first the adductors start getting tight, then it’s the vastus lateralis, right near the knee, then the tightness radiates along the ITB and into the glute… I see the podiatrist Monday, so that’ll hopefully take care of that.

I feel good! Or I felt good. And I’ll feel good again.

Easy Run

Distance: 7mi Pace: 10:02/mi Max Pace: 8:32 Duration: 1h10min0sec

Strength Training – 45 minutes

It feels so good to be back in the zone! I love it! I was really feeling discouraged about two weeks ago, just in a slump about having to go slowly to build my miles back up after the disaster that was September or “The Month of the Killer Sinus Infection That Lasted 3 Weeks”. I was having to slow myself down to stay at “Easy” pace. Love it.

My quads are definitely feeling the reintroduction of the strength training, but nothing too evil. It’s a good pain.

The above was the last draft I wrote for this blog on November 12th, 2009, but that I never published. A few hours after I wrote it I was in a bicycle accident that pretty much benched me for nearly 6 months.

It was a stupid accident, as most accidents are, and it was due to a combination of innattention, bad judgement, bad weather conditions and a dose of bad luck. I was in a hurry (as usual) to drop my daughter off at her art/playgroup because I had a new tutoring session and I needed to straighten up the livingroom because my husband didn’t straighten it up before leaving for work. I was angry with him, frustrated that I was rushing and thinking more about what I needed to do in the future than what I should have been doing in the “now”.

I could see a recycling truck ahead and was trying to think of ways to avoid it as we were on a one way street and I just didn’t want to get stuck behind it. It was too late to turn onto a different route, and there was still a good 400 meters/quarter mile before I could turn onto a different street. I had picked up good speed and didn’t want to slow down so I decided to do what I never do, that is to pass the truck on the right by going up onto the sidewalk.

Yep. Dumb.

What I didn’t calculate were the leaves, huge patches of clumped wet leaves soaked from days of rain. They were packed into the gutter and against the curb, and when my bicycle tires hit those leaves they may as well have been an oil slick. I completely lost control of my bicycle and suddenly everything happend very fast and yet, somehow, in slow motion, simultaneously.

To my immediate left was the garbage/recycling truck, to the right/in front of me a concrete wall. I had to stop the bike, and the breaks were useless as we were sliding on the leaves. I couldn’t let Guppy’s (my then 3 year-old) head, though protected by her helmet, smack the pavement. I slammed my feet down to try to give us some drag, held the handlebars with my left hand, and threw my right arm behind me to brace Guppy’s head as we began crashing to the left, my head just grazing the truck’s bumper. I didn’t remember putting my arm behind me. It was the sanitation workers who helplessly watched the scene who told me I’d done that. It explained the bruising and scratches on my arm.

I knew at the moment of impact I’d broken my foot.

Guppy wasn’t crying, and started right away saying, “Mumma, mumma!” which reassured me.

One of the sanitation workers just stood above us, looking, dazed. I could hardly contain my screams, but I knew I had to try to stay calm or Guppy would be terrified.

“Please, please lift the bike off me,” I begged him. I couldn’t move. My left foot was pinned in a rather bizarre angle under me, and I was seeing white and the black was closing in. I knew I was going to pass out and had to get Guppy out of the child seat and reassure her.

Just then, another sanitation worker was at my side and he pulled the bike up effortlessly and unhooked Guppy from the seat while his collegue steadied the bike. Guppy wasn’t crying, she just kept asking me, “Mumma are you ok? Mumma are you ok?”. She was fine. Not a scratch. I am still so thankful she walked away unharmed.

“I’ve broken my foot,” I told him and I suddenly felt I was going to throw up. “I’m not going to be able to run tomorrow,” I thought to myself, “or the day after that.” Oh no, please let this not be broken.

I started to feel clammy and began to pass out. I quickly lay down on the sidewalk and Guppy sat beside me, her hand in mine, “Mumma’s just a little tired from the fall,” I told her. I also told her that the people who were there would help us and not to be afraid.

Quite a crowed had formed around us by now. One woman stepped forward and identified herself as a nurse who was passing by. She took one look at me and told me I was going into shock. Duh, I thought to myself. She took Guppy’s hand and began chatting with her, slowly leading her away from me, while a motorist who’d stopped covered me with heavy blankets he had in his car.

I could hear the ambulance siren as one of the sanitation workers kneeled next to me and asked me if he could call someone. He reached into my coat pocket and took my phone and called Monsieur Fish for me. The problem was that Monsieur Fish was in the North of Paris and there was no way he could be back in town in less than 2 or 3 hours time.

Now is the part when you get to see my absolute reckless behaviour in action.

I started to get my wits about me and remembered the tutoring session. “This is ridiculous,” I thought to myself. “Get up, get over it. You’re fine.” The paramedics weren’t sure if there was a break or not. There were three of them and they couldn’t agree. The sanitation workers heard the ligament pop, and the immediate bruising confirmed that, but there was crazy bruising showing up everywhere. It was agreed that there was certainly ligament damage, but they needed to take me to the ER for x-rays.

This made me laugh out loud. There was no way I could handle Guppy, alone, in the ER for the 2 to 3 hours I knew it would take to be seen, be x-rayed, etc. We have no family here, and the few close friends we have were at work. I had no one to call to help me – or at least that’s what my in-shock mind was saying. Not thinking straight. Usually a symptom of shock.

I convinced the paramedics that I was ok, that I could walk and that I would just go home and put some ice on it. They challenged me to walk, unassisted, to the ambulance. If I could do that, they said, they’d let me go.

I was pretty surprised by how easy it was. Endorphins do that.

I signed the release papers, got Guppy back on the bike, and began to pedal to her art/playgroup, about a half a mile away.

I was in agony.

So yes, I dropped her off, and even made it back home in time to catch my new student before she left, thinking I’d forgotten our rendez-vous. By the time our lesson was over and it was time to pick up Guppy, my foot had doubled in size and had dramatically changed colour. I was in tears as I called Monsieur Fish, asking him to please come home as soon as possible. He had the car. He had Guppy’s carseat. I couldn’t call a taxi.

And then I rode my bike back to pick up Guppy. I threw up from the pain. That was the last time I walked on my foot sans cast, until nearly 8 weeks later.

Yes, I’m an idiot.

It took me months before I stopped beating myself up over the fact that I could have seriously injured my daughter just because I was in a hurry. I could have lost my foot, or really hit my head and who knows what the consequences would have been (the sanitation workers told the paramedics they were actually afraid of what they’d find because they saw me go down, and saw I wasn’t wearing a helmet).

I also made countless errors in judgement between choosing my orthopedic surgeon to my first physical therapist…just a huge nasty tangly knot of mistakes. It wasn’t a good time. Even after the cast was removed, cross-training was nearly impossible until nearly six weeks later. Just really bad. Bad.

But it’s over. I’m running again. Averaging 35mi weeks. I’m to run a 20k in October. Things aren’t great, my gait has changed and I’m having some issues with my right leg, but I’m hoping some new orthopedic insoles will help with that. I see the footise doc on Monday.

I lost so much over-all fitness, and I cannot seem to lose the weight I gained which is really slowing me down. I am struggling with getting my speed back up, as I’ve tacked on over a minute/mile to my easy pace, and couldn’t do a decent tempo run to save my life. It’s been really difficult to find the balance between training hard and training dangerously.

This week has been my first official training week for my 20K, and it’s been difficult to stay optimistic because I’m just moving so slowly, but I know I can’t rush real progress.

I’m hoping to start posting my workouts again, and reclaim my runner identity

How have you dealt with training injuries and set-backs? Were you able to stay positive and motivated? How?

A lovely run…

Easy Run- Distance : 7.20 miles

Time : 1h08min30sec

Average Pace : 9.32/mile Max Pace : 8:08

My throat was scratchy and I was feeling sicky when I went to bed last night, so I wasn’t sure what was going to happen with the evil coldness. Luckily since today is a holiday, Monsieur Fish was home meaning I could sleep in a little and run later in the day. I think the extra sleep did me a world of good, and even though I was feeling really tired I forced myself out the door.

So glad I did, because I had a really great run – felt strong and full of energy (which if you’d seen me this morning would have been surprising!). Took advantage of the daylight to run on a train in the forest and it was just beautiful with all the yellow leaves. Because I’m usually an early-morning runner, I really enjoyed seeing all the hikers and cyclists on their trails, enjoying the afternoon off.

Only downer for the day: because it was a holiday and I slept in, it was impossible for me to do any yoga with Monsieur Fish and Guppy under-foot. Bah.

I have been loving listening to these crafty podcasts during my runs. I only recently discovered them, so I downloaded a bunch of them and they’ve been alot of fun.

No Run Mondays

Strength Training: 45 minutes

Up until about two weeks ago, I was following an excellent running plan from the book
The Daniel’s Running Formula by Dr. Jack Daniels (which I highly recommend). On that programme I was running Monday mornings, about a 6 mile recovery run after my 10 mile Sunday run. While I think the plan was great, I do think that I need to force myself to take at least one day off (which I wasn’t doing much of the summer), so, I’m opting for Mondays. I hope I can stick to it. I think once I get into my marathon training and have more significant Sunday runs of 15+ miles, it’ll be much easier to not run on Mondays.

In other fun news, I began coming down with a cold yesterday afternoon…geeze, maybe running for an hour and a half yesterday through the pounding rain had something to do with that? I hate the humidity here!

Sunday = The Long Run (everything relative)

Long Run Duration: 1h40m28sec Distance: 9.25mi Pace: 10:50/mi average

Time of day: 7:20 a.m. Weather: Torrential rains, strong wind gusts, 9c

Sunday Numbers 40.7 total miles, 3 strength training sessions, 1 yoga session (boo)

I have never run through such pounding rain for so long. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy running in the rain and often joke that “if it ain’t rainin” you ain’t trainin’” (makes me feel cool). This was a downpour like I’ve never seen in the morning, but I had no choice – Monsieur Fish was to be gone to record in Paris by 9am, so I had to get going.

Mile 1 – I had to stop to wring out my beanie & gloves.

Mile 4- Took off gloves because my hands were so cold & puckered I figured they weren’t helping.

Mile 5- For a split second wished I was not running.

Mile 7- realized how unbelievably heavy my camelback was from soaking up all the rain (as it was mostly empty).

This was supposed to be a 10-mile run, but there was a moment where I could turn off the route and come home, and I did, even though I wasn’t at the 10-mile mark. I was done.

I weighed my clothes, you know, just for fun, and they came in at 2.4K. My shoes came in at 1.3K. No wonder it sucked.

I did learn some valuable things from this run, though, like carrying an extra pair of gloves in a plastic bag to change into, and maybe some socks, too.

All in all, a good run making the best of a bad weather day.