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. 

Knee is still rocking and so many pretty shoes

Kyle here. Last night I went for another run as per our half marathon training plan. It was for 3 miles, so I just ran up to the top of the community and back down. I believe that it was about -7º C, maybe -12º C with windchill. I had on my base layers again. I decided to try wearing my Bikilas with Injinji socks. As I set out of the house I still had a little bit of dread that my knee would hurt again. Well the 3 miles came and went and my knee was perfectly fine. Awesome. Looks like keeping my feet parallel is really going to cure my runner's knee.

So as I said earlier I decided to try wearing my Bikilas with Injinji socks. I must say now that I am not a fan of wearing both. It felt like there was too much between me and the ground. I could feel rocks that I ran over, but I could only feel that they were there. Nothing hurt or was uncomfortable at all. Like I said, it just felt like there was too much between me and the ground. So I can easily say that the Water shoes are the way to go. At least until my Vivobarefoot Neo's come. Then we will see. I so can't wait and I just want to get out in them. 

With that in mind, today while I was at a conference I decided on a whim to see if there are any stores in Calgary that carry them. I found one. Riva's The Eco Store.  It was even within walking distance of the conference. Woot! Lunch time came and I headed out. For anyone in Calgary, they are located just east of Fort Calgary at 1237 9th Avenue SE and they have a ton of Vivobarefoot shoes.

Riva's The Eco Store

I went there to try on a pair of Neo's to see what they were like. But also to look at all the pretty shoes. Tried on the Neo's in the size I ordered and they were tight in the toe box. Crap. We will have to see when my shoes come if it will be okay. Otherwise I'm not sure what to do. We shall see. Rather than describing the shoes, I'll just post pictures of them. Robbie and I will definitely be back to this store. So nice to be able to try them on and their prices are quite comparable to the Vivobarefoot store. They have a ton of selection which they said will only get even better. In the spring they will have everything available. If it's on the Vivobarefoot webpage, they will stock it. I highly recommend Riva's!

The only problem is our lack of lots of extra funds. Sigh. If we had tons of money I would go nuts in this store. Laff If anyone from Vivobarefoot is reading this and wants to send us a shoe to review, that would be fantastic. Not likely to happen, but I guess we can dream. :)

Try on a pair and you can enter to win a pair. But don't, so I'll have a better chance. ;)

The Neo's I tried on. Small toe box. :(

Dressy shoes. Love to get a pair of Dharma's for work.

Robbie would love a pair of these. Would work great for church.

Lovely shoes. The Dharma is on the far right. I'd want it in black I think.

My Neo's are in the same coloring as the third on in.

More shoes.

Even more

Even some boots.

Beloved Neo Trails. One day these will be mine. Oh yes, they will be mine.

Half Marathon #2 here I come.

I am training for another half marathon. I am so excited I can't even tell you. I have felt like my running has taken a back seat of late and I haven't been feeling very motivated to get moving. Kyle and I were talking last night and I proposed that we try and run the Hypothermic Half in February. It is 13 weeks away. I was beaming while we looked up training plans and my excitement for running mounted again. I guess I needed a goal. The plan we picked includes cross training which I thought was wise as we are still transitioning to minimalist running. Yesterday was a strength and stretch day and today was the first official running day. I am super excited to have a plan again, I don't follow the plan to the letter but like having something to shoot for.

Today's run was 3 miles. I decided to run this morning because Kyle was going in late and we are out Tuesday nights. I started out at 6:30 am, it was still dark and quite cold -14C (7F). The run felt great. I felt like my form was more relaxed and overall just enjoyed running. I was running 1.5 min/mile slower than before but I figure I can add speed as I progress. I forgot to take a picture with all my gear on so I decided to lay it all out on the bed to show how much I was wearing to keep me warm. Now it may seem like a lot but when you go from 60% body fat to 18% you feel the cold so much more.

In the picture I have my Bondi Band Ponytail Hat, Energizer Headlamp, Spibelt, Running Room Mittens, Icebreaker Flexi Chute, Nike short sleeve technical tee, Paradox Base Layer long sleeve shirt, Yoga Jacket, Running Room Coat, Paradox Base Layer Pants, MEC Mercury Running Tights, Injinji Socks, Running Room Socks, and Deep Sea Beach Walker shoes.

Wow what a lot of stuff just to run. I'll tell you that I wasn't too warm, my legs were cool but just about right, my face was warm although I pulled the Flexi Chute off of my mouth and nose, and my upper body was warm but not over heated. I am sure that I will need to find a better solution with perhaps less pieces for once it gets colder. I tell you I wear more clothes to run than I wear all week long. So tell me what are your essential cold weather running items? Now that I am signing up for the half I know I'll be spending a lot more time out in the cold than I am used to and I want to be prepared. Also anyone else running in Hypothermic Half?

I'm back in the game! Woot!!!

Kyle here. So after today's post with our revelation about my out-toeing I decided to give it a shot tonight. Robbie and I are hoping to do another half marathon in February and so we just looked up another training plan. On the bill for today was 3 miles. My last run was 1 mile before my knee started hurting and that was only 3 days ago. I was hesitant, but hopeful. I knew that if I started to hurt that I could just walk back and things would be okay. With that in mind my goal for today was to run barefoot style, but making sure that I keep my feet parallel.

It was -5º C tonight and the sun was already down. I put on my baselayer, with a track suit on over top. I had my Bondiband toque on with a headlamp. On my feet I had a pair of socks and a pair of Deep See Beach Walker aqua socks. First time running with them on. The shoes worked great. Nice and thin so I could still feel the ground and all the little rocks on the path, but my toes stayed nice and warm.

Ready for a cold and dark run!          My winter running Aqua Socks.

So I get out on the path and I'm making sure that I'm going slow. Keeping my feet light, land on forefoot, kiss with the heel, trying not to over stride. Oh and making sure that my feet are parallel. I keep checking my Garmin to see how far I've gone expecting pain to start up. Every single ache or twinge I'm over analyzing, expecting the knee pain to come. I get a mile into my run and everything feels great. Well mostly everything. The insides of my legs are feeling tight. This is from keeping my feet parallel. I'm now using new muscles in order to change how I'm running. It's aching a little, but it's a great kind of ache. The kind that lets you know that your body is working.

I get 1.5 miles into my run and then I turn around to go back. Still feeling great. I continued to feel great the whole time. About 2.75 miles in my knee starts to hurt a little. I do a quick form check, make sure my feet are parallel and slow down (I had started speeding up a little without knowing it). Wouldn't you know it, the pain goes away. Awesome. I get home after running 3 miles and I'm so thrilled. I feel fantastic and like I can do anything. So great to be back out running again. Looking forward to running some more.

Oh and one more thing of note. It just snowed today so I was running on snow the whole time. No problem. Even ran over a bit of ice. Felt exactly the same as the rest of the ground. No slipping or sliding. I had to turn around and run over the ice again to make sure that it actually was ice. Fantastic! Ice is a great form check so it was good to know that I wasn't doing too bad.

My duck feet and runner's knee

So as you may know I have been sidelined recently with a case of runner's knee. After my long run where I had to run with a sore knee for 2 miles so that I could get back to the van and pick up the boys my knee has been bugging me. I knew that I should just rest and so I have. Last friday (Nov 11th), my knee was feeling good and the weather was great out. A little warm, still no snow and my wonderful wife agreed to let me go out and run for a bit. I knew I wasn't going to go far, so I just chose to run around the lake close to our house. I wore my new Vibram Bikilas, which I love. I now wear either them or my KSO's all day long when I'm at home. I'd go barefoot at home but with 7 kids there are a lot of crumbs on the ground so that's not the best option. :)

Anyways it's about half a mile from our house to the lake. I ran there in my Bikilas and then took off my shoes.

Narrowly avoided getting pooped on by a flock of geese right after I took my shoes off. Yuck.

The path around the lake. Not a sunny day, but it was warm enough for barefoot running.

The path around the lake is just shy of 1 mile, so I was hoping to run around the lake twice and then head home. 3 miles still seems short, but good. About halfway around the lake though my left knee starts to hurt. Crap. My knee still isn't good. Resigned I put on my Bikilas and slowly headed back home as I didn't want to make things worse. Really getting frustrated at not being able to run more, but I can't force my knee to get better so I just have to rest more.

Then last night Robbie and I were talking about running. Figuring out what our next race should be, what our plans are for the upcoming year, etc. She then asked about my knee. I showed her where the pain was and she said that it sounded like Runner's Knee. And then we had an 'Aha!' moment. When I stand normally my feet are not parallel. My feet point out in a V. I always have done that and I'm sure that it's kinda like that when I run too.

Relaxed stance. I might point my toes out even more normally, I'm not sure.

I have heard that running barefoot will help your body to correct issues like that. I can imagine that trying to run barefoot with my feet turned out like that would make landing on my forefoot more dangerous. With my feet turned out landing on my forefoot would probably make me land a little harder on the little 4th and 5th metatarsals in my feet. These are not really designed for high impact and can lead to stress fractures. Going barefoot probably naturally causes me to correct for this and run with my feet more parallel. Maybe this is the cause of my pain. I'm going to be more mindful of how I sit, stand, walk and run to see if this helps my knee to feel better. I'm also going to do some Runner's knee stretches that we had found on Youtube.

I'll document how it goes. Hopefully the pain will go away and my relaxed standing posture will improve.

Kyle