5 posts tagged “kits”

That's a whooooole lot of running.  Seriously.  I am in shock I ran that much and didn't collapse or anything, haha.  Wow.  It took a long time; it got to the point where the legs were feeling like lead.  Took a few extended stops (washroom, stretching, water/Gatorade refills.)  Still, I did it!!!!  I'm surprisingly not super sore, either (we'll see if that still holds tomorrow!) At the advice of one of my teammates I took an ice cold bath when I got home in order to reduce inflammation.  Then I took a two hour nap because I was pretty beat.  When I woke up I iced my legs on and off for an hour or so.  I just took an Epsom salt bath and am icing my legs again.  I'm hoping all this will ward off the stiffness for tomorrow.

The morning was looking pretty dreary: rainy, overcast, a bit chilly.  I decided to not take my jacket figuring the running would warm me up enough.  I'm glad I made that decision because it stopped raining and the sun came out and it was great weather for most of the run.

We went around Science World, through Gastown (where homeless people and the motorcycle show people cheered us on, lol.) Stopped at a Starbucks for a washroom break where the manager was really nice, cleaning up one of the washroom's for us.  As we were waiting to use them he asked me, "so how far are you running today?" to which I replied "oh, just 30 kilometres." (It came out sounding a lot more casual than I intended.)  I went into the washroom at that point and one of my teammate's said the guy looked at him like "holy crap?! 'just 30km?!' like it's a walk around the block...I'm going to go back to my espresso." lol.

We then ran through Coal Harbour, stopped at the Nike Runner's Lounge for some Gatorade, which was great.  The employee's were all excited to see us so I think that gave us a boost of energy.  They had a couple of massage therapists in there and I think everyone on the team was looking at them thinking "JEALOUS!  I want a massage now!" We were about half way into the run at this point.

We continued along the seawall and up Prospect Point, which is where some pain started in my left knee.  Finally made it up that steep (and seemingly endless) hill and stopped a bit at the top for a stretch to try to see if the pain would dissipate.  We continued on to Third Beach...Second Beach (stopped a couple of times for stretching/speed walk break lol)...to the Burrard Street Bridge. (Yes, that's right we went around the entirety of Stanley Park!!) May I reiterate once again how spoiled I am for getting to run along the gorgeous beaches, forest, and with the Rockies in clear view as a bonus?  Sooo incredible, as always.

I think the hardest part was after the Burrard Bridge because we knew we were sooo close to Granville Island but we had to take a round about way to get the distance in.  Followed Cornwall to Cypress, went down to Macdonald (which is quite a ways.)  Looped around up to another stupid (albiet shorter) steep hill  which REALLY hurt going up so we decided to walk at a fast pace up it because at that point the legs weren't going to pick up enough to run at a decent pace anyway.

Fortunately, it leveled out and we came back around to Macdonald and made a wrong turn, having to backtrack two blocks and then ran back to Burrard Street and over the homestretch to Granville Island.  It's amazing how as soon as you realize how little left there is left that you get a burst of energy.

It was definitely a tough run in the mental sense.  When we got to three hours of running we started laughing because it just seemed so ridiculous that we had been running THAT long, like "this is insane; we are insane" haha.  I think we knew we were crazy when we had been running for two hours and it seemed like no big deal. 

Endurance running is a funny thing because you get to the point where you're lungs and heart are fine running for 2.5-3 hrs but your body is just screaming at you while your brain is telling you to go faster.  I had some doubts at points and every time a tourist trolley went past it was tempting to  get on.  After walking for about two minutes I had to give myself a pep talk.  I've come extremely far and the end was in site...I knew I could do it but it was certainly hard to muster some extra inner strength when my legs didn't seem to want to do what my brain was telling them to.  At another point it was kind of like running fartlek's in the sense of "make it to that tree ok now to the saltwater pool" etc. (though I assure you no sprinting was being done at that point!)  Also, I think going from 24k one week to 30k is a pretty big leap and quite the accomplishment no matter how long it takes.

In terms of on-the-run nutrition and hydration I didn't managing that well today.  I brought along with me one gel and a pack of Sharkies.  I forgot to take the gel until over an hour into it and hated the flavour.  So I couldn't force myself to finish it even and didn't remember I had the Sharkies.  I had probably the equivalent of maybe 350mL of Gatorade and 500mL of water through the entire run.   At one stop I was able to get another gel and ate about half of that.  I did run out of liquid for maybe the last 8k or so which was a bit tough to deal with.

After the run I forced myself to eat a Clif protein bar and drink a bottle of water.  I wasn't hungry but I knew that I needed to replenish nutrients to help aide in muscle recovery.  I think I consumed around 500 cals with the gel, Gatorade, and energy bar.  I still only ate about 500 more cals today but I just don't feel hungry and had to force that still.  Which is not good considering I burned probably around 1,300 from the run anyway.  Does anyone have suggestions for this? (I know, lame that I am asking a nutrition question, haha.)

This post is really long as is so I think I will just end it here!  All in all it was an amazing run!!!

Yesterday I was able to go to the group training session for our weekly long run!!!  I was a bit apprehensive though because I wasn't sure that I would be at 100% and promised myself if the shins gave me any discomfort I would stop.  Beforehand, Lorraine told us that she was running for a friend who has Hodgkin's and has a 50/50 chance of survival...which is an important message because people usually associate Hodgkin's with being the "curable" cancer but there is still a long way to go even with that type. This I think reminded us all of the reason we are running and to give us some focus.

It was SUCH a good run!!!  I was SO happy to be running again.  I didn't have ANY pain in my shins at ALL; absolutely not even a twinge of hurt!!!  That had me so ridiculously excited you wouldn't believe it! The weather was great for running, the sun was out but it was cool, around 18 degrees.  We started out at the False Creek Community Centre and went along the seawall around Kits Beach until we hit Point Grey Rd. There was a slight breeze by the beach and you could smell the saltwater and got a bit sandy, so great!  The mountains had a lot of clouds around their peaks but you could still make most of them out.

When we reached Jericho Beach we took a washroom break and refilled the hydration belts.  Then we kept running until the end of the big hill where Lorraine and Michael gave us Gatorade and water refills which was MUCH appreciated.  They were surprised we made it up there so fast!  Then we continued along a bit of a boring stretch where it was basically just road and trees...not much to see.  After that we got into a beautiful residential portion near the university, the people I was pacing myself with and I talked about different houses and girly things like that.

Michael met us again at a park for another much appreciated water and Gatorade stop!  We kept on going and finally reached Dunbar street where Alicia and Christian met us on their bikes, cheering us on (they are training for a tri)!  We followed Dunbar to the stairs down to the seawall and stopped to stretch a bit and pick some wild blackberries which were very appetizing; they were definitely a welcomed treat and we probably stopped a bit too long to eat some, haha.

We picked up our running again following Kits Beach and it was raining lightly at this point, which was a nice cool-down.  We stopped at a fountain to refill our hydration belts...I think our pace had slowed down considerably by this point.  Once we got back to the Community Centre we stretched out for a while and called it a day!

It was great how even into a hour and a half of running it doesn't seem like much anymore, haha.  The tiredness comes in waves when doing the long runs.  Sometimes I'll think I could kick it up a notch and then others it's just keeping one foot in front of the other.  At no point on this run did I feel like stopping though.  I was worried all the biking and elliptical training wouldn't be sufficient but I guess it was!

Today I was a bit stiff but my calves and shins are not at all!  It's mainly my back which feels like it's in a thousand knots, lol.  I am incredibly glad I took all the time off I needed to make sure my shin splints healed fully and that I was able to complete this run without problems!!  SO EXCITED for next week!!   It was also wonderful to see the team again and be able to chat with them while running.  For sure this was a highlight in my week!!!

Here's the route we completed (I put the start and washroom markers in the wrong spots just ignore that):

It was another GTS this morning and I was, like last week, pretty tired.  My friend was in town from Calgary so we were able to get together over the weekend.  It was fabulous seeing her again, having lots of fun and laughter, although we consumed too much food and stayed up way too late, haha.  Definitely worth the lack of sleep to see her!!

At our meeting point, one of the ladies on our team shared her reason for training with us.  She had leukemia ten years ago and was one of the lucky ones that survived.  She shared with us that it was a 50/50 chance and in the past ten years, those stats have not changed.  She also mentioned that the other patients she met during her hospital stay had passed on or are no longer functioning as they were prior to the cancer.  She is also on the board of directors for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and said this is her first time participating in Team in Training and is really glad for it!  With the money we raise for research and patient care we CAN make the odds better than 50/50 for those diagnosed.  This is why I run.  Help me with the fight against cancer

About the run itself: weather-wise it was overcast and threatening to rain; there were a few sprinkles throughout the run but it wasn't soaking wet.  I forgot my jacket though so I was cold once we finished, during the run I was fine!  We went along kits beach and over to Point Grey road up to Alma.  It was a good combination of ocean running and street running!  I made a decent time and was proud of myself! It's definitely getting easier and easier on the runs.  I think I will start to incorporate more fartleks and add in hill training soon.

On the way home I could barely keep my eyes open and once there I then immediately fell asleep for EIGHT hours haha.  I woke up at 20:00...oops!  I certainly needed that rest though!!

Today it was up super early again for another morning workout.  I was feeling pretty cozy in my bed, not going to lie...but knowing how much I've been enjoying the GTS's I got out of bed fairly quickly!  I managed to get to Granville Island early today and chatted a bit with people before we started our 6k run.  The morning was fairly warm but EXTREMELY windy.  It was funny though because I felt better running against the wind on the way up the route rather than running with the wind on the way down.  Who knows why but oh well! 

I have been having some issues with my right knee hurting and I figured maybe it was compensating for my stupid ankle, lol.  My runners are not old at all so that isn't the problem.  During my weekly runs I put on a tensor bandage but it didn't seem to do much.  I did take an extra rest day this week because it was very painful at one point.  On this day though I put on one of my ankle braces and found that it helped my knee tremendously!  So even though I started off concerned the run felt great and my sleepiness wore off pretty quickly!  Afterwards, two members offered me a ride home since they live near me so that was nice to not have to take transit back :)

My Team in Training Site

Today was the first Group Training Session (GTS) of the season!!! I had to get up at 05:30 in order to make it on transit for 08:30.  It was raining, I was chilled, and grumpy at the transit system.  I arrived as we were just about to start and quickly threw my things down, running to catch up (ironic, eh?!) We did 6k and once I started running all my grumpy-ness melted away.  The rain was quite refreshing to run in and I talked to several of the group members that were at the same pace I was.  Vancouver is so gorgeous, I sometimes am so busy I forget to look around.  We ran along the seawall at Kit's beach and having the ocean surround you even on a fairly ugly day is awesome.  Afterwards we socialized and grabbed a bite to eat at one of the cafe's on Granville Island.  It was great to meet more team members!  Once I got home and showered I felt energized for the rest of the day and was glad I made it out.

My Team in Training Site