Long Run Day

This has been an interesting weekend. Saturday we were supposed to have foster care training but it was cancelled. Too bad no one told us, so we were up by 6 and had all the kids up and out the door by 8:30. Once we figured out that there was no training that day we decided to make the best of it and head over to the science centre for the day. We only have 5 kids because our two little girls were with Grandma. She was driving them to ballet and then taking them out for the day. The science centre was great. We had a nice time and headed home around 1:30 or so. Kyle got in his long run and I headed out the door to shop for boots with my sister. The funny part for me was that last year I was looking for boots and I had a had time finding boots that would fit over my calf. This year I had a hard time finding boots that were tight enough around my calf. I am so grateful every time something like this reminds me that all of the hard work I have put in actually made major changes in me.

Sunday we headed to church like always, only like Kyle already posted Joey had an accident and had to be rushed to Children's Hospital to get put back together. I was so thankful to see him come back into the church by the end of the service. He looked bad but he was happy and running around. Finally we headed home, both Kyle and I were still shaken up and feeling overwhelmed from the accident. It is unbelievable how much a head wound bleeds and really I don't think any parent wants to see blood pouring out of their child. We served lunch and put Joe down for a nap. The little girls had a birthday party to go to and I was planning on running while they were there. I felt guilty even thinking about running when my little guy was hurt but Kyle assured me that he could handle Joe and that I really should run. Thank God for a husband who is supportive of my running. He knows when to push and when to back off and he has been instrumental in my running so far. I dropped the little girls off and headed out for my run. A few of the parents at the party asked me about my water shoes, I was dressed in my running gear. Some strange looks when I said that I wear them because they have no support and let me feel the ground. I number of people also commented that it is crazy to run when it is so cold. At -20°C with the wind-chill I guess I could agree but part of my mental game with training right now is to remind myself that the race is going to be cold, probably much colder than -20°C and I need to get used to it.

My run

I ran 6.11 miles in -20C and I really wasn't cold at all. The sun was shining and I was thankful that I was out running, thankful that this is my life, that I am fit and active and that this year I am not going to go stir crazy in the winter because I am going to get out and run even if it's cold. (well I hope so at least) I ran an out and back on the bike path that runs North to South through Calgary. It is a familiar path and actually it is the path that I did a lot of my long runs on while training for my last half. I was able to run home from church on Sundays and get in anywhere from 7 - 13 miles depending on where I started and how I looped around to my house. The path has been under construction for the past few months and I am happy that it is finished now. I am looking forward to my first run home from church, possibly next week. Anyways the run out was warm so I took off my windbreaker shell. With the sun shining down it was lovely. After the turn around the sun started to go down and I was starting to get a chill so I pulled my windbreaker on again and continued to be warm. Really, I was warm the whole run. I didn't feel cold until I got back into my van after the run. I was sweaty and now freezing. I stopped at my church to change and then headed to Starbucks for a recovery Peppermint Mocha. I picked up the girls and headed home. All was well at our house. Joey was running around like crazy, not seeming to be bothered at all by his head wound. I had a bath with epsom salts and relaxed the rest of the night. So long run #1 is in the books. Only 11 more to go until the Hypothermic Half. I am really looking forward to each run now and hoping to continue to run even when it gets much colder. This was a crazy wordy post, thanks for reading if you made it this far.

Joe at home colouring while waiting for lunch.

Joe being silly at bed time. 1 soother is good so 2 should be so much better.

Long run and hospital run

Kyle here. Yesterday was my long run. My first long run since I hurt my knee. My knee has been feeling better and so far my trick of making sure my form is good has been helping my knee to remain good. Would it last through a long run. That was the question. It was about -16º C outside so first I had to consider what I was going to wear. I opted to go with my running base layer, long johns over that and then track pants over that on my legs. On my top I was wearing a running base layer, cotton t-shirt, and then a Running Room wind proof jacket. Not a warm jacket, but it was pretty windy at the time so I knew that I needed something to cut the wind. On my head I was wearing my Bondiband toque and Robbie's Flexi-chute over my mouth. On my feet I wore a sock liner, big wool socks and then my water shoes. I wore heavy gloves on my hands.

Now I say it was a ling run, but it feels kinda funny calling 6 miles a long run. Considering before the half marathon we were doing 6 miles on normal days and 13 miles on our long run days. It has been a long time since I've done a long run so 6 miles felt pretty good. 6 miles is also the farthest I have gone in minimalist shoes doing actually good form (I'm pretty sure I was heel striking in my Vibrams before. Amazingly it didn't hurt me to do so). 6 miles felt good though. All said and done the 6 miles was a great length. Felt good to be getting my distance back up. My knee acted up every now and again. It first started at about 3 miles in. All I needed to do though was correct my form and slow down and the pain went away. Awesome. As far as injuries go, one that reminds you to keep your form in check is pretty good. :) I must say that my knee is a little sore today, but I think I just need to take care of it a little more next time. Ice it and use tylenol. Even still it's only a tiny bit sore so it's all good.

Mmmm, frosty

My layering strategy worked pretty well. My feet were nice and warm. My hands were nice and warm. My body was pretty good with the exception of one (ahem) delicate area. I'm thinking some thermal underwear next time would solve that problem. One other item of note is that the cotton shirt wasn't a very good idea. It was soaking wet when I got back and heavy. Also Robbie found snow under my jacket in the back. The snow could only have been crystallized sweat. Yuck.

Sweat snow!

So that was my long run yesterday. What was the hospital run? This morning at church Joseph (our almost 2 year old little guy) was in the foyer and tripped over his shoes. He smacked his head on the edge of a wooden door and sliced his head open. Blood everywhere and a screaming boy. The other kids were in the sanctuary, pretty upset. Rebekah and Sarah were the most upset and were just crying. Poor kiddos.

Auntie and Pastor called 911 and the paramedics showed up shortly after. They checked him over bandaged him up and said that we could drive him to the hospital (they also offered a ride in the ambulance, but we didn't think that was needed). I was less shaken up by all this so I drove him. He was a wonderful little trooper. Once we left he didn't cry at all. He was happy, listened well and was fantastic. He got a little bored in the waiting room, but that was the only complaint. :) At one point he was knocking on the door and then was banging his head on the door too. I stopped him from doing that for obvious reasons. Apparently the head wound didn't feel too bad to him.

Joey with his bandaged head and bloody shirt. Shame, it was such a nice outfit.

He was still pretty happy though

The doctor came in and checked him out. Thankfully the wound would press back together nicely so they only had to glue it together, no stitches needed. Phew. So Joey has a nice new war wound on his forehead, bloody clothes worthy of a zombie costume and Robbie and I got all the excited we could handle for today.

Head wound all glued up and ready to go.

Quickie post.

I wanted to write a quick recap of my day yesterday.  I thought it would be fun to share what goes into a day with 7 kids and training for a race.

6:00 wake up get into workout clothes

6:30 make tea, start strength training, light weights arms, abs and legs

7:00 finished workout, sit down to read, blog and eat breakfast (egg whites with salsa and fruit)

7:45 get GG (our foster baby) up and give her milk, get her dressed and ready to go for a visit

8:00 all the other kids get up and start making noise wanting breakfast, leftover oatmeal with fruit

8:30 GG picked up, kids clear table and we start school work

10:00 snack time, call kids to the table for snack, read aloud to them while we eat

10:30 more school work, help 4yo with piano practice, read with 6yo, tell 7yo to keep working and stop bugging other kids, encourage 9yo to find another place to read where 7yo isn't around

11:15 GG gets back, put her down for short nap

Noon lunch time serve lunch, wraps with PB&J for kids, cucumbers with feta and balsamic vinegar and a sweet potato for me

12:30 scramble to make sure everyone is dressing including, shoes, coats, warm things, wake GG and get her ready to go out

1:00 leave for Costco after about 15min of buckling everyone into carseats

1:20 shop at Costco with 7 kids (this went really well, we even had 5 samples)

2:45 pay and head to van, it is snowing by now and pretty cold, unload groceries while listening to tired kids bicker in van

3:15 finally get home, hand out snack at kitchen table

3:30 send littles kids for a nap, 1yo, 2yo, 3yo, 4yo all go for a nap, olders finish school work or play video games

3:45 bring in box after box of groceries while freezing, watching for Kyle to get home so I can stay inside

4:10 cut up veggies and prepare soup to simmer on stove until super time

4:20 get into 4 layers of running clothes and head out for a run, -4C about -14C with windchill

4:30 run 3miles. 2.5 in my water shoes, .5 in just my socks, I also ran down the alley to try running on the gravel. Very interesting sensation.

5:00 grab soup and head to bath while Kyle feeds kids homemade pizza

6:30 head out to choir practice all by myself

10:30 get home from choir, eat my weight in fruit and more soup 

11:00 finally crash in bed

Anyways that's a look at my day. Normally we don't leave the house but with Kyle and I both training for a race our evening are more busy so I may have to start taking all of the kids to shop with me alone. Normally we wait for Kyle or Kyle goes by himself. Yesterday really was a great day. I was amazed at how much energy I had at choir practice after my run. I am so grateful to feel that high again. This is why I am so into running it makes me feel so good. 

Kyle Day 7 and 8: Barefooters aplenty and Running with Rebekah

I should have posted this sooner, but I have had a busy past couple days so ah well. The reason for the delay? Our church had a Weekend for Women 'conference' on Friday night and all of Saturday. So I was in charge of 7 kids all by my lonesome for that time (although a teen from church helped babysit the kids for a bit on Saturday. More on that later).

So on Friday at lunch I was able to get out another run. Ran by myself but there were barefooters aplenty. Well when I say aplenty, I mean I saw 3 other guys barefooting but I guess in our world that is a lot. Pretty awesome too. I managed to get in 3 miles barefoot in pretty chilly conditions. I believe my weather app was saying it was -1º C outside. My feet were feeling pretty good the whole time, not really feeling the cold that much which is pretty awesome.

Anyways so I got out running by myself and right after I started I saw Ryan running barefoot in the opposite direction. Said Hi and continued on. Then another barefoot guy whom I have never seen before came speeding up behind me. He said Hi as he passed. Would have been cool to get his name or to chat for a little bit but this guy was booking it. He was probably doing a 6 minute mile, so I certainly understand why he didn't slow down to my pace (which was 8:20 minute/mile average). Got a couple comments on where were my shoes and 2 ladies were amazed at seeing more than one person barefooting.

On my way back to Eau Claire, right near the end of my run, I saw Brian running the other way. He was wearing thin sandals but he also takes them off after a while to go barefoot I have been told. Very awesome to see so many other people going barefoot. Finished my run and my feet were good but my left knee was a little sore, probably still from Nose Hill before. Maybe I'll take it a little easier this week to let it rest up.

Next on Saturday, while Robbie was at the weekend for women, Rebekah begged me to go running again. We had a teen from our church who wanted to come over to help out so I agreed to run with Rebekah. It was also at nap time so the babies would be down so that also made it easier for the teen.

Joseph managed to bend Rebekah's glasses out of shape so our run had a destination, the optometrist office to get them fixed. My Vibrams were still wet as I decided to wash them the night before (The stench was offending everyone) and I didn't want to barefoot it the whole way so I put on my running shoes. First time in my shoes in a long time so I had to see how it would go.

The run was great though. As I was running with Rebekah, it wasn't fast but it was fun. Lots of great bonding time. Rebekah also spontaneously decided to take off her shoes at 3 points during our run so she could barefoot it. I followed suit whenever she did. The last time was on our way back and she was starting to get tired. She made the comment that running barefoot felt so much better on her feet and that she loved it. Woot!! Loved hearing that, glad she is so happy to run.

Fantastic weekend, glad to get in a couple runs. Looking forward to running with the pack at lunch tomorrow and just having fun.

Kyle

Kyle Day 4: Run with Rebekah

My heel continues to feel better which is awesome. I think I'll be ready to go for normal runs again right away. I was going to rest up for the rest of the weekend, but when my 9 year old daughter Rebekah was asking me to run with her I couldn't say no. This is a first for her. She has never asked to go running before and I was super proud. Rebekah of course being the oldest has seen Robbie and I at our worst. Obese and frankly lazy. We didn't eat right and that is what Rebekah grew up seeing us do. Ever since we started losing weight (A year ago today!!) and started running back in March she has also seen us making better choices for our life. That has recently translated into her wanting to make better choices. She tries to talk about calories, although we redirect her into talking about making healthy choices. She has recently become more adventurous with eating veggies and now loves cucumbers and broccoli. This coming from a girl who didn't really like veggies at all before. Woot!

The path in Coventry by our house

Rebekah getting her shoes on.

With all of that already, when she asked to go for a run, I couldn't refuse. We headed out for a quick run around the neighborhood. I went barefoot (with my Vibrams attached to a carabiner just in case) and Rebekah went in shoes. Although she did take them off twice to go barefoot with me. So proud.


You know what? She is pretty awesome at running. I told her to pick a pace and so we went at about a 10:45 minute/mile pace. And she kept that up the whole time. No complaining, no getting tired, just some awesome bonding time with my daughter.

Barefoot Rebekah

Barefoot but in jeans. Kinda weird to run in jeans

After about 1.25 miles we decided to turn around and head back as it was starting to get cold (this was in the evening). We made a quick stop at the park so she could go on the swings and the playground. And then we headed home. All in all, we did about 2.55 miles in just under 30 minutes. Fun run, great time with Rebekah and she is already itching to get out again. Love it.

Quality time

Kyle