Winter time in #YYC...And the running is easy (?)

I've been away for the last couple of weeks on work travel, so getting the runs in was a little tougher. And what I came back to in Calgary wasn't exactly setting the scene for a smooth transition back into the training program - while it hasn't been as cold as it was when I was away, it was still fairly cold. But the biggest problem has been the slick pavement and large chunks of ice, which haven't really instilled confidence in me when it comes to attempting tempo runs on this slick surface. For some reason, Calgary doesn't seem to plow all that much after snowfall - and there's been a lot of snow lately!

So for now, my plan is to head to the gym for a treadmill tempo/interval run, and then when pace isn't an issue I'll do a medium run tomorrow and a long slow run Sunday. (In comparison Halifax seems to have gotten its first shovel-worthy dumping of snow today!)

In the meantime, check out my article on winter running in Calgary, which I just discovered is hot off the press in the Nov/Dec issue of OptiMYz magazine (pp. 75-7).

Enjoy, and stay safe and warm out there, runners!

~ HRG

T-minus zero days till race day: The race that was a brunch instead...

So - after all the humming and haing and yays and nays of the last week and a bit, not to mention my race day countdown...it turns out that instead of racing in the Halifax Hypothermic Half Marathon yesterday, I had the longest sleep-in I've had in years, watched OASIS tv with my hubby, helped shovel out the car...and then went for brunch.

All of the previous day I'd been sitting on a fence and leaning towards not going, but before I went to bed I'd agreed with my running buddies that we'd wake up early and make the call about the race then. I hydrated, I carb-loaded (kind of) and then I went to bed at a respectable time. But when I looked outside at midnight and the snow was still dumping on us, I had a pretty good feeling that I wouldn't be racing.

In fact, I didn't even set my alarm to wake me up.

Nevertheless, I woke up way early the next day, and started scanning my Facebook feed to see what folks had decided. By around 6:45, the flurry of messages started, and it looked like we were unanimous: with blizzarding conditions in Dartmouth and 50-kilometre winds, not to mention a -18 windchill, we decided to run 21.1kms together on February 17 and simply do the post-race brunch yesterday.

Had this been my first half, or the middle of summer, or if we hadn't had the option of running 21.1 and getting our medals the following week, I  might have been disappointed. But given that I've already fallen once this season and broken the side of my glasses, and that one of my friends had a scary incident where she lost vision on a long run by rubbing off the protective layer of her eyes in the cold (who knew), we all agreed that we were better to be safe than sorry.

And boy am I glad I made that call - because instead of 1.6-kilometre laps, the 60 out of 450 brave souls who did the run  yesterday ended up doing 500-800 metre laps. Which means something like 26 laps, and the course ended up short. Not to mention that it was too windy to put up the race clock anyways (I mean it was so windy I had trouble getting from my car to the hotel for brunch! I dropped my glove and had to run 400 metres to get it!).

Anyways - this means I have one more week to train, and then I'll have a fun run with friends next week. So you know what? I'm ok with that.

But to the 60 people who did yesterday's run - hats off, my friends! Nicely done!

~ HRG

T-minus 1 day till race day, and counting: Don't call me a wuss, but...

I am totally on the fence tonight - the more I speak to fellow running friends, the more I'm not sure what I'm doing tomorrow. I am very, very much leaning towards not doing the "race" tomorrow and instead doing 21.1 kms from the Running Room in a week.

Don't call me a wuss, but after all the snow we got today (seriously, the snowbanks are taller than me!) and the fact that we're supposed to get more tomorrow, doing 13 laps in 50-kilometre winds just sounds like a recipe for an injury.

And I'd rather not take that gamble.

Still - we've all agreed that we'll get up early tomorrow morning and check in with each other.

Let's just say though - if I decide by some chance to run tomorrow, it will be a run - not a race.

Colour me confused - I guess this is one of the downsides to deciding to run a race in the middle of winter in Atlantic Canada!

Sleep well, runner friends. And if you decide to run tomorrow, good luck and stay safe!

~ HRG

T-minus 4/3 days till race day...I mean, t-minus 11/10 days till run day?!? Latest news about the 2103 Halifax Hypo Half

Just learned tonight that Bruce has made the call and has decided to postpone/cancel the race on Sunday due to the monster storm (yes, another one) that's headed this way this weekend. I mean, this one is supposed to be big: 40-50 centimetres are supposed to fall, starting on Friday, and Halifax is in the path of two separate storms headed this way.

Much as I'm sure it pained him to do it, after all of the logistical hiccups from the last few weeks, I think Bruce Bowen, the race organizer, has made the right call. Instead, folks have the option to:

- show up at Dartmouth Crossing on the 10th and do an untimed run of 1.6-kilometre loops (or 13.18 laps);
- show up at the Halifax or Bedford Running Room on the 17th and run 21.1 kms.

There will still however be a brunch at the Holiday Inn at 1 Wyse Rd in Dartmouth this Sunday at 1pm.

Sure, it's a bit of a bummer, especially for those for who this is their first half marathon and who have spent months preparing for this race. But truth be told, I'd rather be safe than sorry. After all, most of us know that you can't expect a PB from a race in the middle of winter. So unless things end up looking super on Sunday morning, and the storm miraculously passes us by (stranger things have happened), I'm thinking I'll show up on the 17th and do a fun 21.1km run with my friends.

That also means I'll have an extra week to train, which to be honest I need, given that my running's been interrupted a few times due to weather and travel (though I did manage a 6km tempo run in -16 degree weather (-21 with the windchill - it was cold!)).

Stay safe out there, fellow runners! We'll race a Hypo together some other day!

 ~ HRG

Updated Feb 8: Please note - the race is back on! It will still be at Dartmouth Crossing, starting at Empire Theatres at 8 a.m. for walkers and 9 a.m. for runners. Please circulate widely!

T-minus 18 days, and counting: Inspiration for winter running!

Image courtesy of www.funnycutestuff.com

Now that we're into the true winter months, it's sometimes harder to get motivated to bundle up and head out onto the slippery/slidy sidewalks.

So next time I need motivation, I think I'm just going to imagine this moose chasing me down Robie Street.

Yep, that should be motivation enough for me!

Watch out for those moose and other random wild creatures, fellow runners!

~ HRG

T-minus 21 days till race day, and counting: Slip slidin' away

Today's run was an 18k LSD. When I woke up after a late night, my first reaction was to hit snooze on my alarm. Our bed seemed so cozy and warm, whereas getting up to go run outside wasn't all that appealing.

But then I remembered my post from the yesterday, and how inspired I'd been after my yoga lesson. I can't on the one hand write about inspiration and on the other decide to hit the snooze button and lie in bed because I was up too late the night before.

So I tried to turn off my brain and the negative self-talk that was telling me to stay in bed and go for a run later in the day, and instead tried to focus on how lucky I was to be able to head outside for a long run, and on how much I would enjoy running and chatting with friends and fellow runners. I knew that once I got started, I would be glad I had gotten up and headed out for that run.

Arriving at the Running Room, I did indeed see many friendly and welcoming faces who seemed happy to see me there. So instead of plugging in both earbuds and focusing on my music, I turned to them and started chatting away.

The roads were very icy, though - the theme of the week. It had snowed, then melted, and snowed, then rained, and a thin layer of ice coated the sidewalks.

Because I was chatting, I wasn't entirely paying attention, which meant that all of a sudden at about kilometre 4, I lost my footing in the middle of a sentence and fell to the ground with a loud "whoop!" that sounded much louder and dramatic than I actually felt hurt.

Our pace leader, Wendy, asked how I was doing and kindly told me to take some time to let it all sink in - because I might be in shock. The rest of the group seemed to be more in shock than I felt, partly because my "whoop" had been so dramatic. I was a little stunned, but more embarrassed than anything. But everyone was super kind and made sure to ask how I was doing, checking to see that there was no obvious bleeding or rips anywhere.

Beyond a couple of bruised knees and a scraped palm, I was fine, though. Although it was tempting to turn around and head inside - the roads really were treacherous - and grumble about how bad the run was, instead, I turned back to chatting with my friends, and the kilometres ticked off gradually.

Until we were at kilometre 17, and Eye of the Tiger came onto my iPod (I still had one earbud in).

I was tired, and my legs were heavy, but I knew it was partly because of the fall and another part because of our staggering gait on the icy patches.

I remembered Stephanie's words from yesterday: I could be achy, tired and miserable. Or I could just be achy and tired. So I focused on the energy in the song and enjoyed the little boost the music was giving me, almost singing out loud to the lyrics. I knew too, from previous experience, that it's the tough runs that are super training for race day, when I'll likely be just as tired and exhausted but will need the mental stamina to continue.

And I finished that run.

My legs are tired and achy now, and my knees are sore and a little bruised, but I'm happy I persevered. I know I would have beat myself up if I'd let myself quit too soon.

One more long run down before race day!

Hope you're all staying safe out there, folks.

- HRG

T-minus 22 days till race day, and counting: three things yoga has taught me

On Saturdays, I usually opt out of a run and instead enjoy a yoga or cross-training class.

Given that my hubby and in-laws bought me 20 classes at Halifax Yoga, I took the opportunity to do some breathing and stretching today in a Yin:Yang class.

I've been taking yoga for more years than I've been running seriously, and if there's one thing I've learned, it's that I will never stop learning lessons about myself and my yoga practice, no matter how many years I practice. Yoga is so much more than flexibility and strength; it's very much more an inner meditative practice. And the more you understand that, the more the lessons learned on the mat can be transferred to life situations off the mat - including running.

The instructor in today's class (Stephanie) was doing a great job of talking us through the class and helping us to think past the performance of yoga, and into the opportunities for inner growth. I'll admit: sometimes some of the yoga talk can seem a little hokey, if you don't take the time to really think about it. But three things stood out to me today as lessons that can be applicable to running, and to life in general:

1) Stop trying to go places, and instead enjoy being in the moment: After a series of sun salutations A and B, our instructor asked us to move from Reverse Warrior, into Triangle Pose. My initial response was, "I know exactly what she means. I've done this so many times before, with no problem, and I'm flexible." So without any hesitation, I leaned forward, shifted my hips back, and placed my right hand on my right foot, with my left hand reaching up and my heart opening up to the ceiling.

Only to find out that the rest of the class was still waiting for Stephanie to guide them from the lean into the pose. "Hang out here for five breaths, and enjoy this sensation," she said. "So often, we are rushing from one thing to the next - I need to go grab my Tim Hortons in the morning. I need to go watch my TV show at the end of the day," she said.

But by making us hang in that in-between spot between Reverse Warrior into Triangle, Stephanie drove home an important lesson: enjoy being in that in-between; in the now. So often we are rushing to go from Point A to Point B, and all of a sudden we realize that minutes, hours or even years have passed by.

The same is true of running - instead of focusing on the experience of being outside with friends and fellow runners, I'm often so focused on just getting to the end of a run. I want to make it to that 12, 16 or 18k (or more), so I plug in my earbuds and focus on ticking down the kilometres till my Garmin tells me, mission accomplished. But it's also important to remember to slow down, forget the Garmin, and enjoy the day and the surroundings.

I've sometimes made a point of bringing a camera along with me for a long run and taking photos of neat things along the way (like on this 23k run a few years ago - I saw so many things I'd never noticed before, even though I'd been running the same loops for weeks, even months).

Whatever it is - whether it's bringing a camera along, or leaving your Garmin behind; take time every so often to just stop and reflect on how lucky we are to live in a city like Halifax, where the ocean is at our doorstep and salt runs through our veins. And we are lucky to be able to put one foot in front of the other, and run - no matter how fast, or what the distance.

2) We have so much: From Triangle, we did a few Vinyasas, and eventually flowed into Side Angle pose. "Now, just try lifting up all ten toes," Stephanie guided. "We have so much."

When you're hanging out with one hand on the ground behind a bent leg, and one arm up in the air, your heart straining to shine up to the ceiling, trying to tuck both hips under you while keeping your back leg straight and your back foot firmly on the ground, having an instructor ask you to lift all ten toes up may seem like asking too much, as sweat trickles down your forehead and your muscles start to strain.

But today, for whatever reason, Stephanie's message hit home to me: the very fact that I was able to hang out in such a pose and lift my toes suddenly seemed like such a gift, when I reflected on the young boy in a wheelchair I'd only just seen this morning in Tim Horton's (yes, rushing to get my morning tea before class...the irony of it), or when I thought about the mother of a former friend who'd passed away only a few days earlier after years and years and years of struggling with her weight and mental and emotional issues.

Suddenly, being able to lift up all ten toes while stretched out in Side Angle pose seemed miraculous.

So, too, is the ability to walk or run any distance at will. To be able to get up on a Sunday morning and drive to a local run club and hit the road for a few kilometres for a few minutes, or a few hours...

We are so lucky. It doesn't hurt to remember what sometimes seems cliche: we have our health. So many others do not.

The next time I grumble about heading out for a run, because I'm tired, or I've had a long day at work, I hope that I remember the miracle of lifting up ten toes in the middle of a yoga class.

3) You choose your reality: From Side Angle, we did a few more sun salutations, and then moved into the Yang portion of the class, which Stephanie started with Dolphin, then eventually Half Dragon.

As a runner, I know that any stretches involving hamsrtrings or quads will be a challenge, even though as a former dancer and gymnast I also realize that I'm quite flexible. That said, running has tightened my hamstrings and I've got some built up scar tissue on my right quad, due to a very old gymnastics injury.

So when Stephanie asked us to pull our right leg through in front of us, plant our foot and lean into our leg, and to feel the sensation in not only our hamstring but also our left quad, I was a little reluctant to stay in the posture for three minutes, as tends to be the case in Yin yoga.

But then she told us a story about walking to school with her son yesterday morning, uphill (which in Purcells Cove means it was a big hill). She had been counting down the minutes till she would reach the top of the hill, and not really enjoying the walk. Then her five-year-old son looked at her and said, "Never give up, mommy."

Oh, the fresh innocence of youth is sometimes astounding.

"You choose how you react in the now," said Stephanie. "You could be miserable, and walking in the cold and damp outside. Or you could just be walking in the cold and damp."

Slowly, as I breathed in and out in Oujaii breath, the pain in my legs ceased being pain, and turned into sensation.

"You can't control those sensations, but you can control your breath," she continued.

I only hope that this lesson will serve me well on the road, when I am running and my legs feel sore and tired. I hope that I can choose to breathe through the pain, and simply see it as pain - and proof once again that I am alive, and lucky to be able to be running with my two legs beneath me.

As we finished the class and began to prepare for Shavasana, I remembered a meditative refrain I've learned in another class, which I often like to recite to myself in meditation:

May I be filled with loving kindness,
May I be well,
May I be peaceful, and at ease,
May I be happy.

So too, fellow runners, do I wish that you can be filled with loving kindness, that you may be well, that you be peaceful, and at ease, and above all else, that you may be happy.

Namaste

- HRG

T-minus 23 days till race day, and counting!

It's Friday, which usually means I get the day off (unless I've skipped a few too many runs and am trying to jam another one in to the week). But I was a good girl this week and managed two out of three runs, which ain't half bad, considering the weather.

Although last night's weather was not as hairy as Wednesday's, once I got out on the roads I soon found out that the sidewalks were deceivingly slippery. What seemed like water running across the pavement was actually patches of really, really thin ice. And what seemed like ice, was ice.

Which made for an interesting run. I'm not sure if it was the fact that I had to adjust my gait to avoid slipping and face-planting (shortening my stride and running rigidly, tentatively), or if it was the fact that Tuesday I did a Yin:Yang yoga class immediately following my tempo run around the Commons, but for the first half of my 8k run my legs felt heavy and my calves achy. (Ok, I had also overdone it a bit on Tuesday's run, when I started out at 5:10 for what should have been a 5:30 pace.)

In any case, for whatever reason, I felt like I was tottering my way through much of the run last night. Partway through, I started hearing my negative self-talk creep in, wondering if I was feeling the pain because I haven't been training enough...was I ready to race...maybe I've put on a few too many pounds since the holidays...Ok, truth be told, after a long day at work I was mentally tired and dreading the run to begin with.

And then I remembered the lessons I'd learned from last year's training, which included trying to stop the negative self-talk. And I remembered that it's the tough runs, when you don't want to be out there, that help you on race day. Because if you can totter your way through an icy city when all you'd like to do is be home curled up under a blanket, then you can do this on race day, when there are friends and family lining the sidewalks to cheer you on.

I also reflected on a great article in Runner's World I'd just been reading the previous day, which said that the days when you don't want to go out for a run, because it's cold and icy out there, are exactly the days when you should get out there. Because when you finish that run, your endorphins will be flowing, and you'll feel a sense of accomplishment.

So I kept going, and I fought the urge to berate myself for running a minute slower than I would usually run (just more negative self-talk). The point of last night's icy run was to get out there, and do it.

Eventually, my gait loosened up a bit, and my legs forgot the ache. And when I got to my hubby's store, I did feel really happy that I'd chosen to go out and get 'er done.

How's your training for race day going? Stay safe and warm out there!

~ HRG

T-minus 24 days till race day, and counting

Despite all my bluster and bravado yesterday about starting to prepare for race day now that I'm signed up, in the end last night's run was scuttled due to bad weather. Such are the trials and tribulations of winter training: there will be days where the sun is shining, the snow freshly fallen and you're glad to be outside enjoying it. Other days, such as last night, the roads are simply just too treacherous to brave; especially at night, where drivers may not see runners as easily, and need more time to stop safely.

So I called an audible last night (as did several of my friends) and opted to take the night off from running.

This close to race day, the training gets interesting. On the one hand, if it's your first time ever training for the distance, this is the point at which you're increasing distances for the first time. It's also close to the point at which you start getting paranoid about things like injuries or illness - one little slip, or a week or more of illness, might scuttle things on race day.

On the other hand, it's at this point that the amount of work you can put into your training starts becoming more and more limited. In a couple of weeks, you will reach the point at which there is nothing more you can do to prepare for race day.

So this time in training is a delicate balance between training enough and avoiding over-training. Which means that even if I missed tonight's run, I'm confident that things will still be ok on race day. Stay safe and warm out there, fellow runners!

~ HRG

Countdown to the 2013 Halifax Hypo Half

At the finish of my first half marathon
2009 Halifax Hypo Half

So I've been waiting since November to find out if I'd have a spot in the Halifax Hypothermic Half Marathon. For those of you who aren't familiar with this race, it is what it sounds like: it's a half marathon in the middle of winter. I'm not kidding.

Last year there were close to 300 runners in Halifax's Hypo Half, and this year the race was sold out by mid-November. Yes, there really are *that* many people who want to run 21.1 kilometres in the middle of winter!

Anyways, I thought the pressure was off, because it was mid-January and still no word about whether or not I had a spot in the race. Which was ok by me, because despite my earlier delusions of grandeur and getting back down to PB time, not missing a run in the training cycle, etc, etc, the truth is, my training's been scuttled by a number of factors, including work travel, pre-holiday parties, holiday parties, holiday eating, then more work travel and another party.

All that to say that yes, I have missed quite a few runs in the training schedule, and yes, I have put on a few post-holiday pounds.

But then, lo and behold, I received an email in my inbox from a kind soul on Monday offering me her spot in the race. The pressure is back on!

This will be my third Hypo Half and my seventh half marathon. So, it's a distance I'm fairly familiar with. But I'm still struggling with easing off the pressure on myself. As my hubby said last night, "Do you realize how few people do what you do? And yet you get upset that you're not faster, that you were slower by seven minutes...Why can't you let go of that pressure?"

He's right. He really is. But as Marnie McBean writes in The Power of More (which I plan on reviewing for this spot sometime soon - it really is a great book), the trick is to balance that sense of realistic expectations with the desire for more. It's that desire for more that keeps us pushing to try and improve ourselves, even if it's by small, baby steps. Marnie calls it "the jammed cat theory." More on that later in my review of her book.

So there you have it - I've missed a few weeks of running, I've done most (but not all) of the long runs but not all of the weekly runs. I've gotten faster in my tempos and made it to eight hills, but still - I have no idea what will happen on race day.

That said, as a friend of mine said last night: I'm just happy to still be running. And that's what I should try to focus on, given that we have so many friends who are struggling with running-related injuries. At the same time...There's still that little part of me that wonders: just what is possible for me on race day?

Only four weeks to go till race day! W00t!?!?!

Stay safe and warm out there, fellow runners!

~ HRG

I've been running, honest!

Boy, it has been a loooong time since my last blog post! Life seems to have gotten busy, but that doesn't mean I haven't been running! Truth is, I've been following the 18-week schedule for the Halifax Hypothermic Half Marathon, and we are now in week 10!

The training has been going pretty well. Unlike this summer, where I jumped in at week eight of the program after being off for two months following surgery, I've started at the beginning and have been focusing on building up my speed, endurance and strength by sticking to the program fairly rigorously. In fact, my tempo runs have improved from 5:59/km to around 5:39/km, while my steady runs have also improved so that a 6:03/km run now feels pretty comfortable.

Cross-training

I've also been building my strength base with GoodLife's Body Pump classes, along with quite a bit of yoga. It's so great when you're running and your legs just feel strong, and this combination of cross-training seems to work for me. Body Pump is a full-body strength workout with a barbell, and includes one track (song) of squats, and one of lunges, in addition to all the other major body groups. I can really feel the difference in my legs!

I also discovered that Halifax Yoga had a special on for new students: $20 for 10 days of unlimited yoga. I used that as an opportunity to check out the studio and its classes. It's amazing how different each studio is each from the other, and it took me a while to get used to this studio's style. However, within a few days, I noticed my hips opening up, and it felt fantastic! Running can be pretty brutal on your flexibility, if you don't maintain a rigorous stretching program.

Running in cooler weather is lovely 


Starting the program in the fall meant I could avoid the hotter running conditions from the summer, and I've really noticed a difference. You can always dress warmer for the cold, but there's only so much cooler you can dress. However, this fall has been so unpredictable, with warmer days following cooler ones, that I've started wearing three different options in my gym bag each day, just in case the weather should be cooler or warmer than expected. Then again, living on the coast, you quickly learn that you can never predict the weather.

The other nice thing about running in cooler weather is that it gets you acclimatized to the winter weather, and makes sure you stay active throughout the holiday season.

Getting used to longer distances


Oh, the human mind is a funny thing. It doesn't matter how many half and full marathons I've run in the last four years, my brain seems to have short-term memory when it comes to long slow distances. For example, last Sunday was my first time running more than 10k in a couple of months. Unlike my 14k LSD last August, which was a sweaty torture from start to finish, this week I actually felt pretty good and maintained a fairly decent pace, up until km 8 or 9. It was at that point that my legs started getting heavier, and my brain started getting bored. I also didn't plan my route properly, so I ended up having to do loops around our neighbourhood for about 4kms, which got boring really fast.


By the end of the run, I was so mentally drained from my inner dialogue with myself about why I was keeping up the run when all I wanted to do was to be home, and home was so close, that when I walked in the door, I was a fuming mess, which hubby noticed. Smart man, he suggested that I go take a bath and relax, because I was so worked up.


Obviously, I've lost the knack for running those long distances - particularly on my own - and I'll have to learn the patience and endurance that I had built up before. I'll also try and kick myself out of bed sooner on Sunday mornings so that I can make it to the Running Room for Run Club. Running long distances alone can get rather...lonely.


Anyways, that's the long and short of it for now. I hope to start blogging more regularly again to track my progress, so stay tuned!


~ HRG