Kyle's Millarville Half Marathon Race Report

Why hello everyone. Yes, this post is late by about a week. Robbie did a great write up of the half marathon from her perspective and I wanted to make sure that I did one also. It just apparently takes me a lot longer before I get in the writing mood to do one. I should really get better about that. Ah well.

Anyways so like Robbie said, we started off the day by getting up at Zero Dark Idiotic as our friend Kelly would say, or in actual time 4 in the morning. We got up, got all our stuff on, ate some food and then headed down to the Millarville Race Track to catch a shuttle bus. I was a little worried before we got down there that there would be tons of people arriving early and that there wouldn't be enough room on the shuttle buses to take us over. When we got to the race track just before the first bus was scheduled to leave there was almost no one there. I guess we had nothing to worry about.

Robbie and I on the bus.

We got on the bus and waited to head out. Our friend Barefoot Neil joined us on the bus and we headed to Black Diamond to start the race. There we did the usual pre-race activities. Potty time!!! Laff. Neil and I got the usual stares and scoffing from people. Robbie was in the washroom line just behind one lady who was scoffing so she made a point to call me hot stuff and to mention us being barefoot. Love it. Funny how being barefoot, or almost barefoot gives you thicker skin. Really I don't care because I'm passing most of the people who are scoffing at me. ;)

Met up with our other minimalist friend Maria and chatted with her about her lovely Hattori's. As Robbie mentioned she was in her Stems and I was in Robbie's pair of Invisible Shoes with the beautiful bright pink laces.

The technical T from the race, which of course we did not wear to the race. Standards, people!!!

I had originally intended on running the race in my Stems also, but a week or two before the race I was feeling like I would prefer something a little more roomy and airy. Granted the Stems are super wide and lovely, but I think I really wanted to be barefoot. However I knew that my feet weren't quite ready for a half marathon distance and so I wanted to save them a bit. So I went with a pair of huaraches instead. I know they say not to do anything new for a race, so I put like 5 miles on the huaraches, then relaced them for my feet, put another 7 miles in them and then ran the race. That's totally fine, right? Laff

Once again this picture from the lovely Maria showing off our great footwear.

So back to the start of the race. We lined up at the front of the back third with Barefoot Neil and off we went. There were 3 little sections of gravel on this run. The first one was right at the beginning for a very short distance. However the rocks were big and on a very hard surface. Of course I managed to catch one rock on the arch of my foot. Ouch. Thankfully that was the only real problem with rocks that I had that day. I ran with Robbie for the first little bit. While I was still running with her one of my shoes wasn't fitting nicely. I felt like my foot had moved over to the edge of the shoe and the laces weren't tight enough. Crud. Maybe I should have spent a little more time making sure they were fitting properly. However, since I'm stubborn I decided I would wait it out and see if the problem would fix itself. I said goodbye to my lovely wife and started to ramp up the speed. I was aiming to average about an 8 minute mile the whole time and so I started going in between 8 and 8:30 minute miles for the first little bit. The first 2.75 miles are all uphill so I kept that pace the whole time. Thankfully my shoes did work themselves out and I was a happy flying man.

I should probably pace myself better. I have heard that you should go slower at first and then aim for negative splits. Apparently that's not my style. I try to aim for one pace and then keep roughly around that pace the whole time. So far it has worked okay, but maybe I should try it the other way. Either way I have to say I love the first little bit of a race when you start closer to the back and then get to pass lots of people. Helps the ego. :)

From there my pace sped up a bit so that it was more in the 7:30 to 8:00 minute mile. As I passed one group of guys I heard them all start to mention 'that book', and that Caballo guy. Cool. Once I started running I don't think I heard a single negative thing about my Huaraches. I think the people who were the most amazed by them were the Volunteers. Always good to wave and thank them and to interact with them as I run by. I found it funny when one person called them Flip Flops. Other than that struck up a couple conversation with people as I passed or they passed me. Other than Robbie, Neil and Maria I saw a couple of people in Vibrams, a guy in New Balance Mininus and a girl in New Balance Minimus shoes as well.

I so wish my phone was set to video when I tried to take this. This dude when he passed me had his arms in the air conducting an orchestra. He almost did a jig or some fancy step to his run. It was hilarious.

The race was supposed to be a Net downhill course and I guess technically it was. I will contend that really, they lied. Net downhill but still lots of big hills. That and a long long stretch between Black Diamond and the Millarville Race Track made it a big mental game. I sucked it up, kept my pace and chugged on. I played leap frog with a couple of runners. They would pass me, keep going for a while and then peter out a bit and I would pass them and leave them behind. I had a bit of a mental game near the end. I had about 2 miles left to run. I knew from checking out my garmin that I was running around 8 minute mile average. I had two miles to go and was feeling tired. It would be nice to PR, but I wasn't really pushing for it. However with the distance remaining and the current time I knew that if I just pushed out two more 8 minute miles I might be able to just manage a new Personal Record. So even though I wanted to slow down, I made myself continue going the current pace. Chug, chug chug, Ugh. Then the end was in sight. I entered into the Millarville Race Track grounds and then came across the gravel at the end. Ugh. Really sucks when you want to give it a final push, but then you hit gravel. Got past the worst of the gravel and put on the speed. The girl just behind me did the same. I tried my best to get in before her but she had just a little more push than me and so she finished like .2 seconds before me (I took comfort later that my chip time was a good 15 seconds faster....Laff). Race done! I finished in a time of 1:45:20. Woot!!! New Personal Record! Beat the last one by about a minute and a half. And I would say that this was the harder course. Very pleased. Glad to get another half marathon done and I had a really good time.

The hand fired clay finisher medals. Note the iPhone for scale. Big medals and very heavy.

Taking a look at the final times I ended up finishing 40th overall out of 263 people. Not bad. 33 out of 99 guys and in my division (Males between 30-39) I came in 12th out of 28. Nice. I never really considered myself a speedy person and I certainly don't think I'll finish first ever (unless everyone else stays home... Laff), but I guess I am pretty speedy.

Well I'm tired now so I should wrap up this post and head to bed. I'm looking forward to more running. Running for the fun of it and enjoying running. I love to run and I really love to run barefoot. Thankful to have other barefooters to run with downtown and I'm looking forward to my first actual barefoot race, like my rockstar wife just did. I'm also interested in trying another type of Huaraches. Robbie and I have our eyes on a pair of Unshoes Wokova Feathers. We have heard good things about them and we love the look of them. If anyone at Unshoes wants us to review them, we would love to. Otherwise we will just suck it up and buy a pair each. ;)

Until later, have a great night everyone and happy running.


Kyle

Millarville Half Marathon ... The race where I learn I can do hard things

Saturday Kyle and I left the house at 4:30 am. This is nuts! Why would anyone leave their house at that crazy hour? Well for a race of course. We were running in the inaugural Millarville Half Marathon, dubbed the Hillbilly Half by some. It was a rural race from Black Diamond to the Millarville Racetrack and Farmers Market. I was really looking forward to this race. It was billed as a net downhill course. Ha! Net downhill includes a lot of freaking big hills.
Here's Kyle and I at the start line, happy to be running and racing together. Although we don't run together. That man is crazy fast, he'll post about his race later I'm sure, but I'll just hint that he finished with the front of the pack. Speedy husband.

We met up with some other minimalist and barefoot friends at the race. Here's our picture with 4 different shoe/no shoe options. Kyle in the styling pink laced invisible shoe, me in my Lemmings, our friend Maria sporting her stylish Hattoris (she ended up with 2 major blisters though), and our friend Neil in his bare feet. Neil was one of inspirations for us to ditch our shoes and learn to run bare.

Going into this race I was unsure of how I would do. I was hoping to get a PR. After the first 3K I knew a PR was not in my future. Leading up to this race things were tough for me. After a fall on a trail run, asthma that was flaring up from all the pollen and an increase in my abdominal pain leaving me with very little to eat that didn't hurt, I probably wasn't in the best shape for this race. Looking back my last long run before this race was actually my last Half Marathon in May a whole month ago.
This race was a major head game for me. It was hard. You know how when you're running after a certain distance or time you really hit your stride? You feel like you're flying and get into the groove. Well there was no flying for me this race. Every step felt hard and my head was telling me to stop. Ugh! On top of that I was trying a new water system. I bought a fuel belt camelback to carry my water. With the increase in my abdominal pain my normal fuel belt that goes around my waist was way too painful to use. Well like they say don't do anything new on race day. Well I learned my lesson. My hose was kinked so I could only get very tiny sips of water. Ugh! I don't normally use aid stations because I am super nervous about what I eat/drink. So many things make me so sick that I avoid unknown drinks and food. After not getting any water for the first half of the race I decided that I really needed to start drinking at the aid stations. The first one I stopped at I swear I could have gulped down 3 or 4 cups of water. I didn't though because I knew that I'd probably throw up with too much in my stomach. Really there isn't much else to report. I finished in 2:03:xx. Runkeeper race info. Not bad at all but not a PR for me. My first Half in finished in 2:02:xx. Granted my first half I was a heel striking cushy shoe runner with bad form.
So the good from this race? Well I learned that I can do hard things. I finished even when things weren't going well. I finished in a pretty good time even with way too little training. I also learned something new about myself. I am not a quitter. See I always thought of myself as a quitter. When things got hard I would quit. I didn't finished University but switched to Bible College, I didn't finish Bible College and instead got married. I started and didn't finished Midwifery school, trying to do internship with five young children didn't make sense to me. I always had a good reason to quit or maybe a good excuse, but I always told myself that I was just a quitter. Saturday's race was probably one of the hardest things I have done both mentally and physically, and I didn't quit. I could have. I could have turned around 3K in like I wanted to. I could have slowed way down, even walked a lot more but I didn't I pushed as hard as I could in the condition I was in. When I crossed the finish line I was spent. I really left everything I had out on the course. Sure I'd be happier if I could have PRed, but I am very happy with how I did. I couldn't have run any harder, I gave it all. Really that is all I can do.
Here's the video of my finish thanks to speedy Kyle.

Going forward I am hoping to do some things differently
-- train more regularly
-- find out how to fuel enough to build up a good glycogen base
-- figure out my camelback
-- ditch my shoes and concentrate more on building my barefoot base
-- stop worrying about times and PRs and focus on how much I love to run
So there's my plan. My goal it to run my next Half Marathon barefoot. It is at the end of September and I think I can get there. So here's to running more free, free from my shoes, free from my ego that says I have to be faster, and free from pressure that I put on myself to be the best. I am going to run like I love it because I do.
Robbie
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Barefoot running for kids.

As most of you know Kyle and I have a rather large herd of children. 7 to be exact. There are only 6 in the picture because we can't post pictures of our foster baby until we adopt her. As we have gotten healthier our children have too. They are now starting to show an interest in running. Often they practice their running and ask us to check their 'form'. It is so cute to hear a 4 year old yell "look at my form" as they run past you. Seeing as we run barefoot or minimalist we had a hard time allowing our children to wear the traditional boxy cushioning shoes that are "good" for kids. So far our kids much prefer to be barefoot than anything else. A couple of weeks ago Kyle and I were out for a walk with all of the kids. It was a mile there and a mile back. Our oldest son Matthew (8) was dragging his feet and whining about how tired he was. Now this poor kid has shoes that his grandma bought him, they are clunky and 2 sizes too big and really looked like his skinny ankles couldn't lift them. We told him to ditch his shoes. The results were amazing. He was running and happy. He had tons of energy and actually ran the mile home. Because of this Kyle went out and bought the older 3 kids each a pair of Vibram KSOs. Rebekah our oldest and Matthew our second oldest love them. Rebekah even wears them to church. Sam doesn't love them because they gave him a blister. Because the Vibrams only came in bigger sizes we couldn't buy them for the younger kids, that and the high price tag. Instead of Vibrams we bought them all water shoes, we were thinking that they were what we ran in all winter long so they should work well for the kids. They all love them. I am so happy to watch my kids run and play knowing that they aren't ruining their feet by getting used to shoe coffins.

Last weekend we participated in the Hope Classic it was a 1, 5, 8K run and a family run. It was very low key but very well organized. Kyle and the older kids signed up for the 1K run. It was an out and back on park paths with 3 different turn around points. The park was beautiful and the weather was holding out, there was rain forecasted. Kyle, Sam and Abi all ran barefoot and Matthew and Rebekah wore their vibrams. It was great. As Rebekah came speeding in for 2nd place a guy commented that she was super fast and that she really didn't have much on her feet. She said that her Dad and siblings were barefoot.

Kyle, Abi (5), Rebekah (9), Matthew (8), and Sam (6)

Getting started.

Sarah didn't officially run the race but she ran about 200m and crossed the finish line.
You can see her water shoes here.

Joseph (2) needed to run across the finish line too.

Here is Rebekah she finished 2nd with a time of 5:05. Not bad for her first 1K

Matthew finished 3rd with a time of 5:55

Abi came in 4th with at time of 6:07

Sam and Kyle came in 5th and 6th. Sam ran the entire way. 

Kids with their finishing medals and faces painted. 

Overall for our kids first race this was amazing. I really don't think it could have gone better. They have all caught the racing bug now. Matthew was asking when they can race again. Rebekah and Abigail and I are running in the Starbucks Run for Women at the end of the month. Now I just need to find more races for the boys. If you are in calgary and you know of races with 1Ks or even 5Ks that are on a Saturday let me know please. We are all infected with the racing bug.

Yes, I'm still alive

Wow. It has been far too long since I last posted. We have been busy with so many thing and unfortunately I just never made time to write. So while I'm currently waiting for a bus to arrive I thought I would start a blog post.

Since I last posted my knee has gotten much better. It no longer hurts when I run!!! Woot!! Loving that. Getting into a good groove running has been hard though. With our DNS of the Hypothermic Half there was really no huge momentum in training. Combine that with cold snowy weather and I just wasn't feeling it. However we now have a couple races in mind for the year including the Edmonton marathon in 23 weeks. Which means marathon training starts now. Looking forward to getting back into the swing of things for that.

Other things of note since I last wrote.... Let's see. Oh yeah. There was the one time that I was running in my water shoes around the neighborhood. It was a little icy out and I was running in the dark. Going along at a good clip when all of a sudden I kicked something with my foot and almost went down. Turns out there was a huge chunk of ice on the ground that was frozen to the sidewalk. When I kicked it, it didn't move. Ouch. Pretty sure that I broke my toe with that one. Thankfully it wasn't hurt bad enough to stop running. Laff

Nice big hard ice chunk. My water shoes offered me no protection.

Another warm day I went for a barefoot run and overdid it a little. Managed to get in 8 miles barefoot. Felt fantastic. However it was still a little cold out and so my feet were a little more numb than they should have been. This led to a little sloppy form and a huge blood blister across my right foot. Silly me, however I had so much fun going barefoot.

Mmmmm, blisters.

Had them for a little bit. Ah well

Other than that in terms of new shoes there hasn't been too much change. I got my pair of Neo Trails that I was lusting after but then returned them after realizing that I wouldn't really use them enough to justify having them. Instead I got a pair of Stem Footwear (now Leming Footwear). My Lemings are now my absolutely favorite pair of shoes ever. Great casual shoe, fun running shoe. I will post a review of them shortly.

My new favorite shoes. Sooo nice.

So there is a mini update on what is going on. Getting back on a running training plan and hopefully with it getting back into blogging more.

Natural Running Coaching

I am sure by now if you are following the barefoot movement, you have heard the debate and commentary for and against barefoot running coaching. There are those who say that to run barefoot without injury all you need to do is ditch the shoes and listen to your body. Others say that while ditching your shoes can be good, it is more important to learn to run with proper form with a coach. Both schools believe that form is important. Trust me if you have ever heel striked in bare feet you know that form is important. Ouch! When I first began to run without shoes I really felt like all I ever needed was me and my feet and the information that the ground gave me to help me run injury free. Unfortunately I live in a climate that really only allows for complete barefoot running about 5 months of the year. At least for me this is true. I know there are some hardcore barefooters out there who would run all through our nasty winters without shoes, but I just don't see me doing this. So after a few weeks of blissful barefoot running I had to put on some shoes to keep my feet warm and safe. For me keeping my feet warm is crucial as I have Raynaud's phenomenon so when my fingers and toes get cold I experience a lot of pain. Not so good for running without shoes in Canada. So I started running in minimalist shoes, first vibrams then in water shoes. The difference in my running form was slight but significant. I began to experience tightness in my calfs and running became less fun. If you look back here you can see that I was less than thrilled about running. It seemed like so much work, trying to get my form right and dealing with pain when I couldn't. This is when Kyle and I decided that a Natural Running Coaching session could really help. See it is quite hard to get the feedback from your feet when your feet are covered by thick wool socks and shoes, no matter how thin those shoes are.

So after that long introduction about why we chose to get coaching, let me tell you about my experience with it. Tina sent us a video of the basic mechanics of running. It detailed that there are 3 main running forms. Heel striking over strider, Forefoot striking over strider, and the elusive Natural running form.

The heel striking over-strider is the form most shod runners, and some minimalist runners use. The heel hits the ground first way out in front of the body and then the trail leg follows. There is a large distance between the front and back leg. 

The forefoot striking over-strider is where most barefoot and minimalist newbies fall. This is where I was. basically I was landing on my forefoot but reaching to far forward with my feet thus not landing under my body.  As you can see in my video I was leaning way back. I was my way of being sure I was leaning forward but like with many things I took it too far. The coaching helped fix somethings immediately but I was very disconnected with my body and I had a hard time adjusting and doing the things Tina told me. I couldn't for the life of me tip my hips in the right direction. I was disappointed after the session, not with Tina or the coaching but with my inability to 'fix' my running form. I may or may not have a problem with not being perfect at the things I do. I wanted to be a natural runner without needing to change anything.

Thankfully, Tina sent me home with so exercises to do and some ideas about how I can get my hips and feet under me. In the next weeks I practiced and practiced and I noticed my running form was getting better. I could figure out where my hips should be and I was able to shorten my stride. I still have to work on my cadence, I am a little slow. Every time I up my cadence it feels like hard work and I stop doing it. I really love running but I don't like running to feel like hard work.

Kyle and I met up with Tina at Martin Parnell's Right to Play run in Cochrane on Dec 31st. She offered to tape us running again. I was so surprised at how much better my form was.

My feet were under my body, I wasn't leaning and my cadence was getting better. I am so thrilled!!!

I now understand that Natural Running Coaching isn't a one stop fix it. It is a lesson, a tool to use in this journey to natural and barefoot running. I would do it again and probably I will check in with Tina every now and then to tune up any sloppiness that I am sure will come. I recommend getting a coaching session at some point in your journey. It is amazing how great running feels now. I am injury free and I feel like I am flying again when I run. An added bonus, I am faster now too, without really any added effort. How cool is that?

I highly recommend Tina and her coaching. She is offering coaching in person right now and I have heard a rumour that she may be adding some online coaching as well. Check her out, you will love her, I know that I am thrilled and so happy that we jumped in and had our coaching session. If you have had natural running coaching, did you like it? Did your form change? If you get a hold of Tina for coaching I'd love to hear how it went for you.

Take care,
Robbie

Almost Barefoot Running in January

Well the snow finally hit again this morning. I am so thankful that we have had such a dry and mild winter so far. When I first started running barefoot I was sure that my time was limited with the winter approaching but I have been pleasantly surprised.

I wanted to comment on my run last night. Run Here I started out for a 5 miles run. I cannot believe that my next race is just over a month away. I began in my water shoes and felt good. I was being sure to pull myself back and keep my pace slow and easy. I have been working on my form (I'll post soon about my coaching session with Tina) and as my form has been improving I have been getting faster. It is quite hard to go slow now but I know that it important for my health that I have some easy runs. A mile in I was feeling quite warm and I saw that there was very minimal ice on the sidewalks, so I took off my shoe and ran the rest of my run in my wool socks. Ah Freedom. It was wonderful. Of course the ground feel in just my socks was great, I even noticed that I could run over the tiny rocks that they use to sand our streets, without feeling pain. I felt them and knew that I was running on rocks but somehow it didn't register as pain. I ran over some ice and it wasn't a big deal, I slipped a little once but I didn't fall or even really have to catch myself. I did run on what I thought was ice but it turned out to be a small puddle my toes were immediately wet but somehow dried very fast and I was never cold. My only complaint of the whole run had nothing to do with my shoes or socks. The Running Room has a run clinic on Monday evenings in my neighbourhood. I have often seen them out running and have run past them on a number of occasions. Last night I ran past the group twice in the opposite direction (face to face). I was annoyed. Twice as I ran past these women they were running 3 wide and THEY DIDN'T MOVE! Yes I am yelling. Both times I had to jump into the grass and run (somewhat dangerous in my socks and in the dark, there could have been anything in the grass and I wouldn't have seen it). Seriously it seems like they think that because they pay for this run and are running with the Running Room that they own the sidewalk. This isn't even the first time I have noticed this with Running Room groups. In the past I have encountered groups that run 2-3 across the sidewalk, groups that run on the wrong side of the path, and every time they DON'T MOVE.  Not sure what they teach in those clinics but I would think that basic running etiquette would be nice. Seriously, who does that? Next time it happens I am going to stand still and let them smack into me if they decide not to move. Really it's so maddening. (sorry vent over)

When I got home from my run, I checked out my socks and my feet and I am super happy that my wear patterns were right where they should be. Between my first and second toe and on my heel (from when you put your heel down after the initial contact with your forefoot).

See the darker spots between my 1st and 2nd toes.

I have been very guilty of not letting my heel touch the ground ever. This has lead to sore calves. After this run I was pain free and feeling good. IF only the snow hadn't come today. I was looking forward to getting out in just my socks again. I am noticing that after being in just my socks my watershoes feel tight. I have wide feet and even a bunion on my left foot and really need a super wide shoe. Kyle and I are looking into ordering Stems soon. Oh and I won a pair of Invisible shoes from Jeff over at http://barefootinclined.blogspot.com/. Thanks again Jeff. I am crazy excited to get these, I never win anything so this is so sweet. I think I will be ordering a pair of custom shoes, I just have to decide what colour of laces I want.

My sweet wool socks from Marks Work Warehouse.

So that is what I've been up to lately. I will be posting about my experience with Natural Running Coaching right away. It was so awesome. A little birdie told me that very soon Tina will be offering online coaching as well as in person coaching. I cannot express how wonderful and helpful the coaching session was. I recommend it to anyone and really everyone who wants to run naturally, it is like a fast forward button to learning how to run without shoes. But I'll save my full review for my next post.

Take care,
Robbie

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!

Yeah, I know. It's been quite a while since we have posted. We have been a little busy with the holidays and not much in the mood for posting I guess. Ah well. Even though I haven't been posting it doesn't mean that we haven't been running. Thankfully we have still been doing a lot of that. My last post I talked about a run on the 20th of December where I was able to get out barefoot. Well I was able to do the same again on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve this year landed on a Saturday, which is my long run day. Since Robbie didn't want to add in a long run on Christmas as well as all the other stuff we had to do (Opening presents, going to Church, driving her sister to the airport, and then going to my parents house for Christmas) she had her long run on Christmas Eve too. Thankfully we were able to squeeze both in without too much trouble.

My long run was set for 12 miles and it was great. I started running in my water shoes. It wasn't too cold and thankfully the pathways were pretty clear. Oh wait, that reminded me of Robbie's run earlier in the day. She warned me that some of the less maintained pathways were really icy. She proved that by finding a nice downhill section while she was going pretty fast, being unable to find somewhere with traction and slipping on the ice trying to slow down. Down she went and she slammed her elbow and her head into the ground. Ouch. She phoned me at that point. I was all set to drive out and get where when she decided that she was okay and that she wanted to finish out her run. She's a Rockstar.

The pathway that took out my wife.

Anyways after Robbie's warning I stuck to the well maintained pathways running along Deerfoot Trail. Got 6 miles down and then started to head back. At that point I decided that it was warm enough to barefoot it for a while. And so I did. Wonderful. I do love the sensations of it although I did get many stares at the weird guy running with no shoes on. So that was my Christmas Eve run. My runner's knee was bugging me off and on, which sucked, but it was okay.

The pathway I ran on. Nice and clear.

Water shoes?

Off they go for 2 miles! Woot!

One annual tradition that our Church does is to have a family Communion on Christmas Eve. It may not be the most convenient thing, but it is definitely one of the most special things that we as a family do. In what is such a busy time, with rushing here and there and the pressures and everything else that happens at Christmas, it's nice to have some time to just stop, relax, breath and meet with God as a family. The Church is always done up very nicely with candles everywhere (which freaks my mom out) and it's always a much needed time.

Then we had Christmas. The kids got spoiled like always, although Robbie and I did a lot better at not giving them too much. The kids didn't get too many presents but you know what? They didn't even seem to notice. So happy about that. For Christmas Robbie got me some CEP compression sleeves, which I love and have been so thankful to have. I got her a pretty purple running jacket from MEC.

After Christmas I had a couple shorter runs. 4 miles in my water shoes and 5.3 miles in my Neos. Not much to say about those runs except that my knee was bugging me. The second run was supposed to be 6 miles, but I had to cut it short because my knee was bugging me too much. It was at this point that I decided that after the half-marathon that Saturday that I was going to take a week off (at least) to try and get my knee to feel better. I hate feeling limited strictly by my knee and I need to get better. No sense in being stupid about this.

Next was the Martin Parnell race in Cochrane. This was an annual race to help fund-raise for Right to Play. It started at 9 for the marathon distance. Robbie and I both decided to do the half-marathon distance. It was a super casual race, well not really a race, more like a run. The course was just a 2.5 km out and back along a pathway (that was also an off-leash dog run. Almost stepped on a couple of little dogs. Fun times. Thankfully there were no aggressive dogs out). So we went back and forth about 11 times until my Garmin said we had run at least 13.1 miles. I decided to run in my Neos and Robbie chose her water shoes. Here is my Runkeeper link for the run so you can see how exciting the course was. ;)

Martin Parnell run in Cochrane.

This was a fun run. No pressure, just get out and run. The wind was pretty strong going one way. So I froze my bits off going one way and warmed them up going back. The difference between running the one direction and the other was quite startling. We managed though. :) The aid station had water, hot chocolate, coffee, shortbread cookies and fruit leathers. Not the typical aid station but you could stop whenever you felt like it for however long you felt like it. Martin Parnell was there as well as ultrarunner Ellie Greenwood. Kinda cool running with people you see on the cover of running magazines.

Robbie rocking it.

Even better though was meeting up with the other barefoot runners we know. We ran with Toe-Girl Tina for a while and near the end ran into Paul and family and Barefoot Neil and family. It was a great time and we were glad to get out there.

Paul. He ran ~8k barefoot (after wearing his Kevlar socks for the first little bit)

I hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas holiday. Tomorrow I'm back to work, but the upside is that since it it now January I can go to Riva's Eco Store and buy my Neo Trails. Woot!!! So looking forward to that.

It is almost Christmas

Things have been super busy around here. I cannot believe it has been 11 days since I have posted. I am slowly starting to get better after my awful sickness. I still have a cough but at least I can breath again and I am able to run.

I have been reflecting lately about how different this Christmas will be for me. Last year I had just begun my journey to get healthy and lose weight. I was doing well and actually managed to continue to lose weight over the holidays last year. This year is so different. I have reached my goal weight and I am a runner. Oh my, I can't believe I wrote that. I am a runner!!! If you had told me last year that I would call myself a runner or that others would see me as a fast runner (funny. I am pretty slow) I would have laughed. This year though, leading up to Christmas I am running. I am training for 2 half marathons and oh yeah, I am eating cookies!!! I am at a place now where I can indulge and not gain because of the miles I put in and because my body has settled in here. Now I need to learn how to indulge moderately, I still have a tendency to binge and eat nothing but cookies. It will come I am sure.

Goal weight. All dressed to preform at my Christmas Concert

Onto running. Things have been going so well. I am finding my form much more easily and running has become a joy again. Thanks Tina. I am even getting some more speed. I think that once all of the snow is gone and I can run in fewer layers I may actually be faster than before I switched to minimalist shoes. I am continuing to run in my beach walkers. They feel so good and I am amazed at how waterproof they are. On my run last night it was a mix of slush, puddles, ice, snow, and some dry spots. I ran through at least 2 ankle deep puddles last night and didn't notice any water getting into my shoes. Amazing! 

My last long run was on Saturday. It was good but I was definitely bonking at the end. Run here. I had been indulging in a great number of cookies and chocolates for most of Friday and Saturday, but I have a much smaller stomach now so I didn't eat much else. I guess all that sugar wasn't what my body needed to go out and run for a couple of hours. Overall the run was great. The weather was amazing. 5ºC with a pretty strong westerly wind. I love chinooks!! It made me look forward to spring and running again when there is no snow and ice on the ground and I don't need a bazillion layers to keep me from freezing. The bonking came at the end of my run. By mile 8 I couldn't eat anymore of my fuel. My stomach was uneasy and I couldn't imagine putting anything else in there. I was running in an area that is newish to me. I had run out that way but never back. I had to stop and check my map on my phone because I was disoriented and didn't know where I was going. I did finally get going in the right direction and made it home. I was beat. I guzzled a chocolate milk and a large glass of water. Stretched out my IT bands then fell into the bath. I am not normally tired after a long run and I really wondered how on earth I was going to run a half marathon in 2 weeks.  Pictures from my long run.
 

Fast forward to last night. Run Here.
It was warm again last night and I was feeling great. I ate supper with the family and then quickly put on my gear. The noise and busy-ness of my kids was getting to me so I needed to get out!!! I set out without any set distance or time that I wanted to accomplish. I was going to do at least 4 miles. I ended up doing 7 miles and ran progressively faster as the run went on. It felt amazing to be running fast more quickly than normal. I got home feeling like I could have run for a lot longer. I guess I can do the half next weekend, as long as I eat real food along with my cookies.  I passed this house while running, it was so lit up the whole street seemed to glow.

And just because it is always a nut house here I thought I would share some of the pictures I took yesterday during the day.

First up Joey (2) helping to make scrambled eggs. Surprisingly we only found one shell while we were eating.

Goofy Pictures and a sweet picture of 2 of my girls. We are super excited for Christmas here. It is all sorts of crazy!! 

More winter training and Christmas drawings

In preparation for our upcoming Half-marathons at the end of December and in February I have been trying to run outside as much as possible. Even when it is not very nice out. Chances are the half marathons won't feature great weather with snow free condition so I better get used to it. Especially since this is our first winter running. I have to say though I'm still quite enjoying it. Running in my water shoes (at least until I get my precious Neo Trails. I know, I know. I'm still going on about it, but it's my blog so there. I'm totally looking forward to new shoes in the new year). I'm really digging the water shoes. The grip isn't super great on ice, but that's also a good thing as it helps with form. :)

Anyways so I have been running outside lots. Long runs on the weekend and shorter runs downtown during the week. On Monday I had a 5 mile run outside and it was wonderful. Still having some issues with the knee, but stretching it out first seems to be helping a whole lot. Need to make sure that I'm doing it all the time and I think that would make things even better.

Snowy paths. Packed snow and ice can be challenging

While I was running outside I was struck with a thought. It has seemed really hard lately. 5 miles seems like a whole lot more work than it did in the summer and fall. In the summer I was wearing just shorts and a t-shirt and maybe Vibrams. Now in the winter I'm wearing several full length layers. I'm not sure how much extra weight there is, but considering how much more work it feels like while wearing normal shoes, I can imagine the extra weight of base layers, track pants, extra shirt, jacket, two pairs of socks, etc, can be more draining. That said I still love it when on long runs that when you get past the first 5 miles I still feel that I can keep going on forever. Well I could go on forever except for my knee. Sigh. Stupid knee.

Beautiful

More things that Robbie and I have noticed. Running on packed snow and ice can be really challenging. The packed snow can be very bumpy and uneven. We find this to be much harder on the joints when your feet aren't landing flat every time. I can imagine it can be the same way with trail running, except with snow it can be hard to anticipate what angle the ground is going to be.

I ran another 4 miles today, but I couldn't do it outside. I forgot to wash my outside running clothes and I didn't want to kill everyone around me with the smell. I'm sure people appreciated that. I just ran 4 miles on a treadmill at work. 2 miles in my Neos, however my toes felt a little cramped today, so I changed into my Bikilas for the last 2 miles.

Our kids are getting super excited for Christmas. Come home today and my daughter Rebekah was so excited to show me the pictures that she drew. I thought they were really cool and inventive so I wanted to share them.

Lucky me, I've been here before, only with Castle Lego for the boys

Gecky is our Crocodile Gecko

Apparently the boys are not dreaming of sugar plums, but of presents.

I've informed them that this drawing will not be happening. ;)

Classic sisters teasing their brothers about the mistletoe