Just a quick post today to say…
Thank you so much! 😀 I am thrilled to be sticking around for Round 2. I really appreciate the feedback that I have received, and am really glad you’ve been reading.
Congratulations to Vicky & Grant, Terry, Dana and Tyler – I am honoured to still be in your company!
I was listening to my favourite radio station 97.7 HTZ FM the other day. Oddly enough on my way to run. The DJ,  can we still call them that, has this brain strain thing she does each day. On the brain strain she asks a silly, but interesting questions. You answer correctly and you get a prize.
What does this have to do with running you ask? Well, the question was. “What is the longest line up for the bathroom?” Callers called and guessed until the number was reached. And the guy who won the prize could now brag about how he had won the contest answering a question about bathrooms.
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His answer was 756.  A pretty long line up. And pretty impressive that no fights broke out. But I snorted when I heard that number. Obviously KK (the amazing DJ) hasn’t been to a running event.
If she had she would know that 756 people in line for a bathroom is nothing.Â
I make sure I don’t drink a lot before I run. Doesn’t matter if I am doing a simple 5 km run with Jim and Dave or if I am running the relay at Road2Hope. No water, or beverage of any kind.
I made the mistake once of drinking a little too much before a race. I stood in line for an eternity while waiting to get in. And once I got in, I was unsure of what to do.
There was no TP, no hot water and a lot of grime. But when you know there isn’t going to be a bathroom on the course. Well, you get the idea.Â
So as I prepare for the Around the Bay on Sunday, I will walk past the bathrooms in Copps Coliseum safe in the knowledge that even though the bathrooms will be clean, there still will be a line up. And that I can just walk right on by.
Hello and Thank you to those that have checked out my blog for the past month…
It has been so much fun for me to share stories and experiences of my running journey. I was surprised at how refreshing it was to look back and think about where i have come from and where i have ended up and all the fun stuff in between…
Thank you for your support, your feed back and your stories and i hope you stay committed to your own journeys with confidence, commitment and enthusiasm. Life is worth living to the fullest, creating amazing memories along the way…
TOTB: Stay focused, think positive, challenge yourself, and don’t be afraid to fail because it is far better to try and fail than fail to try… Â that is a quote but i am sorry i don’t remember who said it…Â
BOTB: Every blunder makes you who you are today… every mistake gives you an opportunity to learn… it is when you don’t pay attention and learn from those mistakes that you make the biggest blunders…
Live your life with NO REGRETS!!
GRANT:Â
Vicky, we did it!
VICKY:
Are you serious?!
GRANT:
Yes! We are one of the Final Five!
VICKY:
No way! Awesome! You know what this means?
GRANT:Â
Exactly. We are one step closer to our Olympic Dreams!
VICKY:
Right. We just need to find a less popular sport with very little competition.
GRANT:Â
Are you thinking what I’m thinking?
VICKY:Â
Let’s do it, Grant!Â
Click the link below and be dazzled!
Our Olympic Dream
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Tonight I made Kraft’s Spinach Pasta Toss for dinner. It’s great because it is only 5 ingredients and super-fast to make. It is also very flavourful, and thanks to the multi-grain pasta has 4 grams of fibre per cup. If you wanted to boost the protein in this dish, I am sure it would be lovely with chicken, or there is another recipe on their site that is almost identical, but has Italian sausage.
Since this is a blog about running I think it is necessary that I am upfront in saying I have not ran since the last time I wrote. How’s that for honesty!Â
Today is the last day for the first round of Blog Idol and I find myself in the middle of a Hurricane! A moving hurricane! I have spent the last week sleeping very little, packing a ton and raiding any cardboard dumpster for boxes! FYI-Tim Hortons and Sportchek have the best supply, followed by Chapters and DQ. At this point we are in what I would consider to be the eye of the moving Hurricane. You know the point where the strong winds and rain take a bit of a break. The movers have come and gone, my wife and kids are visiting Grandparents and things are very, very quiet in my empty house. Too quiet. (It’s kind of like running without music. You can here yourself think and breath and that is not always good!) So now I clean and clean and clean for the next day or so and then we wait……..wait until our new place is done and the outer wall of the eye begins and we enter right back into the moving Hurricane!
During this waiting period I hope to accomplish a number of things, one is running way more then never and two is to catch up on some sleep. That is if I can get the sound of packing tape being wrapped around boxes out of my head!
If I am successful in getting through to the next round I will be sure to have way more entries about actual running and my adventures on my journey to complete a full marathon in the fall!Â
You know the thing about cross training is, it gives you a break both mentally and physically from running…
You can cross train to replace a run and you can cross train to support your running… when i inline skate i replace my run because i go hard, for several kms and i really work my legs and it is a great cardio work out when i do… when i bike on the trails or bike to commute, i use my legs, but no jarring so I use that to build other muscles that will support my running.
I am at a point of runners burn out because of the intensity of the program i am on and i miss the cross training that i have no time to fit in… i could swim, or walk, or bike or even play more badminton and basketball, but i have chosen to do this training with JUST running… for me, i will not do this again… i love my other sports and i love the change of pace, but i am interested in seeing if this training regime makes a big difference in my personal record… that is my goal and i hope i achieve it, because i really plan on going back to running and cross training… highly recommend it for your mental well being for sure…
TOTB: Make sure you cross train with sports that are fun and not just because they are different from running… I truly believe when you love what you do, the mental high you get is more empowering than constant repetition of what you think makes you faster, but only makes you less willing to give it your all
BOTB: The challenge with cross training is remembering what bag holds what equipment and do you have what you need before you leave so you don’t have to buy what you left behind… and let me tell you, if the candy store at the lake doesn’t carry goggles and you have to buy the kids play ones… they really don’t keep the water out as well as they let the water in… swimming across a lake blinded by the murky water kinda takes the fun out of the training…
The reason my marathon was such a write-off was because my training had been severely impeded by knee pain, and we couldn’t determine the cause. For months I had been working under the premise that I had a knee injury.
In November, I went to see a new physiotherapist who specializes in sports and running specifically. I won’t bore you with the details, but she told me that the pain in my left knee is the result of an imbalance that is causing my right piriformis to compensate for something my right hip is supposed to be doing, which is causing my left ITB to be pulled taught, which is pushing my patella off to the side. While it could have turned into an injury if not corrected, it is not an injury per se. Fascinating!
What’s more is, she figures it isn’t caused by my running, but by everything else in my life. I am sure many of you can relate when I say my life is very asymmetrical. I always carry my bag on the same arm. I get out of my chair at work in the same direction, which also happens to be the same direction I get out of my car, and out of bed every morning. I always put my pants on starting with the same leg, and tend to hold the phone with the same hand. Over time, this repetition causes slight imbalances in the muscles – a repetitive strain, if you will. Throw on top of that the fact that I have terrible posture when I sit at my desk, which is basically all day everyday. Then, I ask my body to perform the very symmetrical task of running, and have the nerve to assume the problem is caused by the running.
I guess the point here is that I wasn’t looking at it holistically – I wasn’t seeing my body as a system of interconnected parts that is influenced by all of the activity in my life. On one hand that makes maintaining my running-health more complicated, because now I know I need to think about all of the things that I am doing that will either contribute to, or alleviate the problem. On the other hand I am kind of glad that’s all it turned out to be, because that, at least to some extent, is something I can control.
potential disaster is looming for this weekend. Around the Bay  is this sunday and I can barely walk up the stairs without coughing up a lung. I need help and I need it fast – I’m not going to waste my doctor’s time with complaining about a virus but does anyone have any common cold managment techniques? my cousin, LH, suggested putting Vicks Vapour Rub on my feet right before bed with a pair of socks to keep them toasty. I picked up some VVR this morning on my way to work. gotta do something to get rid of this cough!
send your cough remedy suggestions to hoodieruns@gmail.com!
Don’t you just hate it when your shoelace comes untied in the middle of a tempo run?
You can stop, bend down and tie it, but you lose your groove, and probably fall over because your heart rate is way up.
Or you can keep going and probably flip spectacularly as you trip over trailing laces.
It’s really a no-win situation.
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