“I don’t love to run”  I recently declared when I was being interviewed for a radio program as part of the Runner Makeover.  That probably wasn’t the declaration that iRun was looking for when it chose me.  But upon reflection, it is actually true and its actually kinda not true (there is an election on so perhaps I have been listening to too much spin talk).  What is important to understand is that I really love some things about running.  They are:

1. The feeling I get when I run first thing in the morning – I feel alive, awake and that I started my day out right.  I am a natural morning person, and the feeling of seeing the world while it is often fresh and uncluttered I am  infused with the optimism of a new day makes me really happy.  Now, its also true that when I am warm and toasty under the quilts I am not so in love with morning running, but I always am happy when I get back from it.

2. It is my refection time – Part of my personality is that I rarely stop and I do thinks quickly(thus all the typos in my blogs).  Its a strength but also a weakness, as a little reflection time helps to process information, develop new ideas or just let my mind rest.   During a run, I don’t get distracted by TV, the phone, the annoyances of the dishes not being done, my job, my family etc and the other things I really want to think about come to the fore.

3. The ease of it –  Almost all other activities involve gear, me driving somewhere or a team.  Running I can do on the spur of the moment, and really the only thing I need is a sports bra and my sneakers (and really the sneakers are more optional then the sports bra).

4. Getting to know a place – There is nothing like running to get to know a place.  As I have mentioned before, I  just started a new job.  By running in this area, I am getting to know the area better.  Today someone asked me where I ran, and I told them I ran on the great trail system located just up the road (which I found a few weeks ago).  They had been working there for years and did not know about it.  I love running when I am on vacation or in a new place.

5. Soccer –  I run so that I can do things I really love, like playing soccer with my team, the Mud Creek Grillers.  I like competition, I like the feeling on our team, I like the women, I like that some of them are younger then me and are juggling young children and still making the games, I like that some of them are older than me and still are amazing  players and athletes who want to win, I like the sportmanship that we practice as it helps us all create a more civil society.  I just really like playing soccer and I want to do it for a long time and I want to get better, so I run so I can continue to play soccer.  I love the heart of my team .  As an example, when one of them serious hurt her anke last night (maybe broke it) she was really upset that the other team scored as a result and that she was going to be sidelined for a while.  My team has moxy and it inspires me.

So when someone asks if you love running,  realize that you may not  love the act of running, but appreciate the side effects and the fringe benefits

Wanted to tell you about last nights’ run.  It was supposed to be a tempo pace workout. Since I run by feel without any techno gadgets, Tania explained how the target pace should feel, I was going to do 5 x 5 min runs around 5:25 / km pace. 

So, I have to learn the difference between “sprinting” and “tempo” pace….It turns out that I spent almost the entire 30 minutes that I ran running at almost sprinting to actually sprinting levels.

I only started to think about it when I realized that if Tania thought that I could maintain this pace for at least a half an hour, then I must be going too fast as I had to stop and suck air on at least 4 different occasions (with walking in between too).  I got so scared that I am actually not in very good shape as I was not able to keep up that pace that I thought was required (until I realized my mistake).  After the workout, I realized that I may have been running at or about the 5:25 tempo pace that Tania suggested, off and on during ALL of my runs by myself for the last month! 

 It was a hard lesson to learn.  I am glad that I did it if for no other reason that I can learn two things : 1) how to find my tempo and hold it for a long time and 2) gives me incentive to take my training even more seriously by reminding me that I have a big challenge ahead of me and that it will take a lot of work to get the result that I want to get.

I’ve been kind of feeling slumpish the past couple of weeks, running wise.

Life is busy and I’m getting to the point of the highest intensity in my training (one more month until tapering begins!) and ugh. What I wouldn’t do for a bike ride, you know?

(Except it’s still too cold for bike riding. And I haven’t gotten it out of the storage room yet.)

Anyway, it felt like every run I was dragging my heels to get going. My mom once told me that lacing up your shoes was the hardest step to take, and while that’s often very true, it wasn’t very encouraging to convince myself to lace up my sneakers only to drag my heavy tired legs along for 8k.

This happened to me last time I was training for a marathon, too. I got to the point where my legs were never not tired. I’m not sure that there’s really any way around it, I mean, I do strength training twice a week (once with a personal trainer) and run four times a week. I think it’s just some weeks your legs are heavy and tired and some weeks they’re not.

As far as my sore leg goes, I went out and bought myself one of those very strange foam rollers and now, every evening I do stuff like this.

I’ve actually been spending about 20 minutes stretching and rolling each evening. It’s oddly relaxing to contort your body over a piece of foam.

As far as muscles go, I’m pretty sure my leg is fine. I’ve laid off speed training for the past two weeks, but assuming my (second attempt at a) 32k tomorrow goes well, I’ll get back to it next week.

I need a motivational boost, guys. Tell me what you’ve been doing and what your goals are. Have you been enjoying spring weather or is it still cold? How are you spicing up your runs? Anything here, guys, anything will work.

Since I began this Runner Makeover I have PB-ed (or is it PR-ed?) twice. The first one was just a couple weeks into the makeover, when Coach Tania was still trying to get a handle on what the heck to do with me.

The day before the Hypothermic Half Marathon she told me to “run hard but stay in control and respect the conditions” (it was cold, snowy and slippery here in Edmonton). So, I did what I was told.

I saw many a runner bite the dust (more like ‘bite the ice’) during that race but I stayed on my feet and managed to finish in 1:40:50. I placed 8^th overall, 5^th in my gender and 3^rd in my division. I was over the moon! I had PR-ed (or is it PB-ed?) by almost 14 minutes (1:54:05 in Vancouver ’09).

Tania’s strategy for me is to run faster for a few shorter races before I tackle another full marathon (and try to qualify for Boston) so I also signed up for the St. Patrick’s Day 10km this past weekend. Once again it was a narrow, slippery and snowy race. I watched as many runners lost their footing and went down hard on the ice and snow, all the while wondering when it was going to happen to me…

I managed to stay on my feet and finished in 45:20. I placed 10^th overall, 5^th in my gender and 1^st in my division! That morning I got a medal and a PB (or is it PR?) of 8 minutes (53:54 at the same race in ’09).

For years before this makeover began I had dreams of doing a 1:45 half marathon and to someday do a 10k in 45 minutes but I had no idea how to get there. Yes, I do coach other racers and have a decent bag of tricks to throw at them but I had run out of ideas and (more importantly) faith in my own abilities. Holla to iRun Magazine and this makeover for hooking me up with Tania, Adidas and Lauren. My faith is back and I am ready to PR (or is it PB?) may way into Boston.