Month: July 2016

Life’s Chores You’d Rather Avoid

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 11 Comments

Sometimes life isn’t always about running and kids around here. Though I mostly blog about running and occasionally my family, I sometimes have to do adult things. Yuck!

Our girls have been spending some time with their Grandparents which has allowed me some down time (ha ha, cleaning, PT, sitting in the sun, etc.). It’s also allow Saï and I to go out to dinner a few times …. but I didn’t take a single photo. We didn’t bother with our phones….it was lovely.

I’ve mowed the long on vacation…

mow lawn

 

…In my running clothing yes!

I was debating going for a bike ride or run after doing the lawn on Monday so I figured why change twice. I’m wearing the Under Armour HeatGear 7 inch shorts and I love them. I love the length, the feel, the touch and how comfortable they are. I’m also wearing the Nike Free Run sneakers and the UA “Run” tank – perfect for summer!

I got the lawn done during a cooler portion of the day by luck and then decided I was too tired to run or bike as the sun came back out and was ridiculously hot. I did some boring stuff like clean my side of the room, laundry and clean out our fridge – nothing photo worthy but it’s just stuff you’ve gotta get done!

What’s the chore you hate doing most?

Ever dress in your running clothing doing house hold chores and then run?

 

Week #4 of MRW Half Marathon Training

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 3 Comments

Another week in the books however, I feel like I am really slacking on my training. When I look back at what I accomplish in a week (IN THE HOT SUMMER), I’m totally okay with it. I’m still hesitant about that half distance but am moving forward with it as my long runs are really awesome right now.

I’m enjoying running more and more, something that I wasn’t feeling in May and June. Let’s hope that this keeps up and I can increase my mileage a little more (no missed runs) this coming week.

What was Planned vs What Really Happened:

Monday July 18th: Coaching | Nothing. Poor Lilly was so exhausted from the weekend and day camp we took a night at home to rest. I was needing an early night too – we all were!

Tuesday: Yoga | Rest Day + PT Appointment. I was planning to go to yoga up until the last minute. I changed my mine post PT appointment even though he said I could go. I have to avoid lunging so I just decided to take it as a rest day. My SI joint pain is causing my hip to collapse which is causing my knee to collapse. He taped it up and instantly the pain went away…magic!

taped knee.jpg

Wednesday: Coaching & Run | Coached & 3k Treadmill Run + PT exercises. This was our first successful soccer night in regards to Hilary not having a meltdown (or 5). Bedtime was super late and a struggle for Lilly, so I didn’t start my run until 9:30 PM. I only ran 3k, enough to warm up and then do my PT exercises. I really wanted to run 5k but just didn’t feel I had the time.

July 13 Treadmill run

Thursday: Speed Work | 7k Run. No speed work but just getting out for an evening run to test my SI Joint and knee. It was good. I ran into my running buddy and her family as they were getting ice cream (jealous!).

July 14

Friday: Rest | Rest Day. Nailed this one!

Saturday: 14k Long Run | Nothing. I slept in after staying up until midnight talking to my Mom. I also went out with a girl friend of mine that I get to see once a year…so  sleeping in was okay with me.

Sunday: Soccer | 16k Long Run. It was great. HOT but great. You can read more about it in details here (just in case you missed my post Sunday).

Best way to cool down post run…stand in cold sprinkler for 10 minutes. AH..may..ZING!

July 24th long run

Km this week: 26 km

Km in training plan: 62 km

Last Year’s training for MRW: Though I was injured last year during Maritime Race Weekend I still trained for it. I decided to look back at the training and see how it went. Last year’s training went pretty well….and I was in PT at the time – sounds familiar!

Half or drop to 10k? At the beginning of the week I was thinking of dropping to the 10k however after running 16k on Sunday…I’m leaning more towards running my 5th half marathon. I still don’t know why this is a problem/challenge for me. Maybe I’m just way to scared of all the hills Maritime Race Weekend has along the route. Maybe I’m just being a whimp!

Overall: I feel like it didn’t start off so well but the last part of the week I just felt better. More rest is what I need right now but I’m still able to pull off some good runs. I’m happy with it. If you missed week #3, you can catch up here.

How’s your training going?

Sprinkler post run – yes or no?

Do you skip a long run if you’ve been out the night before too late?

Polar A300 Activity Tracker

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 23 Comments

Sometimes I find it hard to remember I’m training for my 5th half marathon (in September) because I feel like I’m taking a laid back approach to my training. Sure I have a training plan that will get me to the start line but I also have “other” things I want to do in the summer. Swimming, cycling, playing soccer AND coaching soccer. It’s busy but it’s working.

To help keep track of all my activity, I’ve been using the Polar A300 Activity Tracker. It’s part of the SportChek Ambassador Program that I’m apart of. Now, if you’ve been around my blog for the last year or more, you’ll know I gave up an activity tracker last year as I just wasn’t loving it any more. I found it wasn’t accurate and would often give me “steps” when I was washing the dishes and even changing diapers (wow, that was long ago!). It was pretty basic and in the end I just didn’t want to feel like I wasn’t getting my steps in.

are-set-to-wed-on-2

Fast forward to the six weeks and I’ve hardly taken this one off my wrist. I usually wear a simple sport watch day-in and day-out …yes even to bed. Why? I can’t see with my glasses off and got into the routine of wearing my watch all the time especially when our girls were babies and I was nursing them around the clock. I just liked to know the time and it was easier to look at my watch then put my glasses on and find the bright clock across our room.

The Polar A300 is an activity tracker; so counts your steps, daily mileage, sitting, sleep and when paired with a heart rate monitor (HRM), can track your heart rate, do fitness test and provide other data along the way. I don’t have the HRM with this device so I’m limited to some of the cool tricks this activity tracker can do. Even though I can’t use the HRM functions, this watch continues to surprise me over and over.

Polar Activity Tracker Anna.jpg

Pro’s:

  • It feels like an every day watch.
  • The arm band is super flexible and you can change the colours if you want to (purchase required) and extremely soft.
  • Pretty easy to figure out how to use.
  • Provides multiple “activities” such as running, cycling, indoor exercise, other outdoor exercise. These can also be changed to the activities YOU do. I’ve added Yoga and soccer.
  • Easy to take out the device from the watch strap and sync on a computer.
  • It can get wet – bonus for the summer and busy lives.
  • It tracks your activity in six  different areas (Not worn, Resting, Sitting, Low Activity, Medium Activity and High Activity).
  • If sitting for too long (60 minutes) it will prompt you to get moving (noise, vibrating and a message).
  • It counts your daily steps, mileage in kilometres or miles, what % of activity you have accumulated and it also tells you what activities you can do to reach your goal. Example: 1 hour 10 minutes of walking or 4 hours and 38 minutes of yard work etc.
  • When you hit your daily goal, it tells you so by vibrating with a message on the screen.
  • When it’s your birthday, a cake appear. Seriously…that was fun. See above!

Polar Flow App (I use)

Polar tracking App.jpg

Con’s

  • It can get fuzzy from your clothing (see picture above bottom right).
  • You need the HRM to use all the functions of the watch.
  • I had some challenges syncing it to the Polar Flow app on my phone but manged to get that sorted with Polar’s IT support.
  • I wish it had a GPS tracker in it (which the M400, A360 and V800 to have).  I like seeing my distance and pace when I run or cycle.

Product Details:

  • Weight 48 g
  • Thickness 12,7 mm
  • Water resistant (30 m)
  • Updatable software
  • Memory capacity up to 60 days (with daily activity tracking and 1 hour of daily training)
  • Rechargeable battery
  • Battery life up to 4 weeks
  • Easy sync via Polar Flow app with Bluetooth Smart
  • Data transfer to PC and Mac with a custom USB cable

I really like the Polar A300 and as I mentioned, I haven’t taken it off (maybe once or twice) since I got it. Two thumbs up for this activity tracker!!  The biggest difference for me between this activity tracker and one I’ve used in the past is that I’m less focus on getting in my daily steps and more excited to track my multiple activities. I would recommend this one of the activity tracker I used last year (and no longer use).

Do you use an activity tracker?

Birthday wishes on your watch, yah or neh?

All opinions in this blog post are my own thoughts and experiences. These products have been provided as part of the summer SportChek Ambassador program.  Thank you SportChek!

Seven Eighteen AM

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 5 Comments

That’s what time my alarm when off this morning. Hummm….

I was supposed to get up at 5:45 AM but apparently I set my alarm wrong 😦 The plan was to be up and out of the house around 6:15 AM to start my long run of fourteen kilometres. The girls are away at their Grandparents house and my husband had left for work at 5:15 for work.

My first reaction was SHIT, I was supposed to do my long run I missed the day before (due to lack of sleep and pain in my hip (SI Joint). Meh….I’ve got nothing else going on so I decided I’d get ready and head out for my run.

Though I was slow getting ready, I got out the door at 8:06….but ran back in as I forgot to put body glide on my legs. Never trust a pair or short-shorts in the summer heat when you’ve got thunder thighs.

I restarted my Green Garmin for the second time and off I went with the plan of running 14k. I’d run out 8k and then run back a slightly different direction to get home for 14k. My pace was great (for me) around 6:22 for the first few kilometres and then slowed down a bit.

Super sweaty run.

July 24th run.jpg

The sun was out and it was H-O-T!!!! Unsure of the temperature, I did my best to stay hydrated with the two bottles (one water, one Nuun) and enjoy the few shady breaks I got from some trees here and there.

Maritime Race Weekend half marathon is super hilly (in my mind) so I  decided to run an extra hill on the way out…nailed it! I kept going towards a double hill…you know, once you get to the top of the first one you have to keep going as there is another incline you couldn’t see at the bottom of the first hill. Fun times!

At the half way point and I took advantage of more shade and ran into a subdivision for 1 minute and back out again. Chews and gu’s were consumed. The heat was building even more and I decided to do that hill again on the way back. Nailed it too 🙂

After that I took more walking breaks as the heat was just getting to me however, my legs just felt great and my pace was still consistent (minus the walk breaks). At some point I decided to keep running past the short way home and run 16k. I did a little more walking during those last two kilometres but I was fine with that.

I even scouted out a sprinkler to run in however, I decided it was too far onto the person’s property for me to run though…too bad. I made it home and finished in 1:46 with a 6:36/km pace. That felt good.

Splits July 24th running

I quickly went to our back yard and turned on the sprinkler (remember, the girls aren’t around). I didn’t care I was on my own and I just stood in the sprinkler for a good 10 minutes cooling down. After that I sat and stretched which turned into a yoga session on the deck in the sun.

Oh how I love long runs again!

How far is too far to run through a sprinkler on someone else’s lawn?

Anyone run today? Hot run, cool run?

When’s the last time your alarm didn’t go off and your run started much later then expected?