Month: May 2017

Half Marathon Training Week 9 Wrap Up

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 12 Comments

Half marathon training is moving along, hard to believe week 9 is done. I’m kinda loving the fact that June is in a few days and hopefully some more consistent warmer weather for us!

Last week wasn’t the best and at times I felt like I wasn’t progressing with my pace. At the same time I don’t want to put all kinds of pressure on me to complete my 5th half marathon in a certain time. I just want to run it and enjoy it…okay, and finish better then last year.

My pace is way off for me and I’m finding that hard to accept but your pace can’t change over night. In 2014, I ran A LOT!!!! And my pace got really good (for me) but with so many injuries in the last few years, my pace has gone out the door. What I need to remind myself is that I’m just lucky to be running at any pace and not injured anymore.

What was Planned vs What Really Happened:

Monday: Rest Day | Cycling 17km. I’m really loving adding in a day of cycling to my half marathon training. I’m hoping that it will help reduce some injuries yet keep my legs active.

Tuesday: Yoga | Yoga. Still loving my Tuesday yoga class.

Wednesday: 8k | SLEEP. I just needed sleep and nothing else after a few sleepless nights.

Thursday: 5k | 8k. Somehow, I managed to get in 8k after a full day of work. My husband was home so I went for an evening run and it was a hard one but I got it done.

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Friday: Rest Day | Rest Day. I woke up with a nasty head cold – just not my week! I was pretty run down from lack of sleep and trying to do it all…I guess.

Saturday: 10k Race | Rest Day. Still was feeling horrible and spent the afternoon at a parade in the cold. When we got home, I made hot chocolate, put a fire on (yes, May 27th I had a fire in my woodstove!!) and did nothing that night.

Sunday: Cross Train | 10k. No racing. Ha, the thought of “racing” a 10k right now isn’t pleasant. Actually, let me rephrase that – I’m not “racing” anything. I’m simply running the distance in whatever pace I can manage these days. No “racing”.

This long run (cut back week in my plan) was kinda last minute in between swimming lessons for the girls and my husband leaving for work. I was cranky, still sick and was encouraged out the door….so I went.

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It was an ugly run. There really wasn’t anything pretty about it. I’m confident it was the head cold, not enough food, warmer weather and just being in a cranky mood that didn’t help. BUT, I got it done and for that I’m happy.

Sometimes you can’t have a great week of training. Life happens and you have to readjust your training and take care of yourself. That was me last week and so far this week too.

Weekly mileage: 18 km running, 17 km cycling.

Last year’s week nine was a great training week, you can read it here.

How was your week?

Anyone else wishing the weather was warming up?

Do you worry about your pace?

 

 

May Runfessions

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 33 Comments

Somehow it’s the last Friday in May….to me, it just appeared out of nowhere. I don’t think I’m quite ready for it to be June. The month of June brings my oldest turning 7, I run my 5th half marathon, school finishes AND summer begins!

Runfessions

I’ll runfess that getting back to my lunch time running (aka RUNCH) was really, REALLY nice! There are so many reasons why I love to run at lunch but mostly, it frees up my evening when I’d normally work out. I may be a sweaty mess at work afterwards (don’t worry, I clean myself up) but I also love the bonus of feeling energized for the afternoon.

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I runfess that I love running with my husband! It’s not that often when we get to run together so when we do, I love it. We talk about everything and nothing, we run in silence, we laugh at stuff and sometimes we pick up our pace to see if the other one is paying attention (and will keep up). But mostly, I love that we share the same passions.

I runfess that I’ve written a blog post about how I feel like a running failure and doubting my running ability but haven’t published it yet. About a year ago I was doing my thing, training for my goal half marathon which went out the door before it started. I was wearing my Nuun hat & shirt but felt like I totally didn’t even represent what they are all about. I know, super silly of me because taking the time to look back (writing the blog post), I know that I was representing what they are all about – active lifestyles. Though I didn’t finish anywhere close to my goal time, I finished! I’m sure we all have negative feelings sometimes about running or life stuff so, don’t worry about me runfessing this…it’s just a moment I wanted to share.

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I runfess that I’m starting to feel excited about my upcoming half marathon in three weeks! Though it’s father’s day when I run, I’m looking forward to *hopefully* having a redemption run and FUN running 21.1. It will be a exactly a year since I’ve run that distance and felt like a failure (runfession from above). Though I still have some long runs ahead of me, I’m feeling pretty good.

I runfess that I have no desire to register for any races (to date) but am totally scoping out ALL THE RACES. There are so many around but most of them are during weekends when my husband works, so I have to find someone to watch my girls. Don’t get me wrong, there are family members that would take them in a heart beat but I just haven’t committed to anything else. I’m just not registration-trigger happy yet and that’s okay. When I find the next race I want to sign up, I’ll do it.

That’s all I’m runfessing today. We’re in for a wet and rainy weekend but I’m looking forward to squeezing in my long run at some point!

Have any runfessions this month?

Ever doubt your running ability?

Who do you love to run with?

I’m linking up with Marcia for today’s Runfessions post. It’s hosted on the last Friday of each month!

Check out my other Runfession posts:  April, March, February and January.

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I’m also linking up with Running on Happy & Fairytales and Fitness for the Friday Five 2.0 linkup!

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Have a great weekend!

Bluenose Youth Run Recap 2017

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 20 Comments

Last weekend the girls both ran in the Bluenose Marathon Youth Run. This was Lilly’s fourth year and Hilary’s second year participating.

Friday afternoon we drove into Halifax to pick up their race kits. This was the first year I wasn’t running at the Bluenose and they were. I kinda wondered if we were silly for doing this just for them and then I snapped out of that thought. Yes, they are with it – the drive to the city, the stress of navigating a race with two kids, the few complaints they may give us as they creep towards fussiness from waiting in line or walking a lot to the start line. It was worth it.

Pretending to run up Citadel Hill

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They LOVED the expo!! Free sample foods, pictures taken, seeing Bo from Bo on the Go (TV show), and seemed okay that we didn’t see Myles (Bluenose guy) this time. Navigating a race expo with kids can either be super fun or mayhem, we just went with it. After the expo we got to have dinner with my family and visit with my niece.

We had the girls up at normal time on race day and out the door to get good parking. We arrived way to early and had some unhappy campers but….sometimes it’s worth a good parking spot, right?!?! We met up with our friends and made our way down to the start where we had to walk even further to get into the start area. Lots of walking!

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There was a sea of kids. I’m unsure how many participated this year but for every child there was at least 1 parent, if not two it seemed. There were strollers with little ones and all ages dancing to “Sunshine in my pocket”…oh I mean “Can’t Stop the Feeling” as part of the warm up. Hilary didn’t like my dancing….I’m confident my husband didn’t either 😉

Didn’t like my dancing…just kidding, father-daughter pep talk!

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Lilly ran with Saï, my friend Krystol ran with her son while I stayed back and ran with Hilary and Braegha, Krystol’s daughter. Both girls were LOVING IT! We ran 90% of the almost 2k distance, stopped once to take off a long sleeved shirt and then once more to catch B’s trucker’s hat blowing away in the wind as we turned the corner to the finish line.

She looks like a bad ass (cause she kinda is) but really she has a mouth full of food. 

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We managed to find everyone in the metro centre…yes I still call it that. I think it’s called the Scotiabank centre now but to me it’s the metro centre. The girls had some snacks while we watched the crowds trickle in from the 4k youth run.

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After that we went out to lunch and back to my parents place again. Saï and I snuck away for a 15k afternoon run while the girls hung out with their cousin Ava. We then had another family dinner before heading back home later that evening.

It was a whirlwind 24 hour trip to the city but by far so enjoyable, so much fun and really, just a great weekend together. That’s it’s, another great running weekend with my family.

.Anyone take in a race with their kids?

How close to a race do you try to park?

Do you dance/do the warm up at races? (I do 🙂 )

 

Half Marathon Training Week 8 Wrap Up

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 23 Comments

Last week’s training plan had me running lots and not just on my own. It was a week of sunshine runs, cool breezes (enjoyable) and some family time.

Technically, last week was week #8 of Johnny Miles Half Marathon training. I missed placed my training plan and was just kind of going with what I normally did in the past. Usually I have my training plan on my fridge in the kitchen so I see it every day and can check off each day I complete. Having that visual is an easy reminder of what’s to come in the coming days. This time around, my training plan was completed but I never checked off each day or each week. It was kinda lost and I was aloof with it and care-less about it. You can’t training half ass for a half marathon. Okay maybe you can, but I sure can’t! If I don’t put in the time, I suffer late in the training or on race day/recovery.

What was Planned vs What Really Happened:

Monday: Rest Day | Cycling. 17k on the indoor trainer.

Tuesday: Yoga | Yoga. Nailed it, loved it.

Wednesday: 8k | 6k. I got my days mixed up and thought I was supposed to run 7k but I knew I could only fit in 6k during my lunch break.

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Thursday: 5k | 8k. I wanted to make up for not getting in the 8k so I did so during my lunch again. This was a HOT ONE! I hydrated all morning, brought water and Nuun with me on my run, ran in the shade (trail) for a bit and finished super sweaty! Thank goodness I was the only one in the office 😉

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Friday: Rest Day | Rest Day. Nailed this one too!

Hilary had her Primary orientation day in the morning which was really exciting and then we headed to Halifax to pick up their race kits for the Bluenose Marathon Youth Run (2k). We had a great evening with my family and even got to spend some time with my niece.

Saturday: 16k | 2k + 15k. This was a loaded day of being on our feet!

Bluenose 2k youth run: My husband Saï ran with Lilly and I ran with Hilary and her friend Braegha. There were thousands of kids and parents and it was a tone of fun! They did awesome, I’ll recap this tomorrow.

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15 Long Run: My husband and I planned on running the Bluff Trail which is a 9.5k loop near my parents place. Forest, open areas, rocks, lakes – heaven really. I’ve hiked it before a few times but Saï had never been. I thought it would be fun to run and then finish off my distance on the BLT section. However, my ankles had other plans.

We started out and earlier in the day I had tweaked my good ankle running with the girls, yes my good ankle 😦 It apparently didn’t like the uneven terrain and I broke down crying because it hurt. We walked back out of the Bluff trail and walked for a bit before we decided to run on the BLT trail. {BLT = Beechville – Lakeside – Timberlea}My husband didn’t care where we ran but that I wasn’t injured badly. I wasn’t, however I was determined to get in a long run.

We ran along the BLT trail together for an hour and forty-six minutes. We took our time, chatted and just enjoyed being outside together. We ran out from our car 7k and back 7k, then added on 1 more kilometre.

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When we got back to our car, we stretched and checked our Garmin’s, then I did something to mine and it froze!!! I lost all my steps for the day (30,000+) and thought I lost my runs too 😦 However, my husband reset my watch later on and I only lost my steps. We then had another family dinner and had awesome entertainment from our 21 month old niece. She had everyone around the table clapping and laughing hysterically. After dinner, we drove home (an hour away) and got the girls to bed, then enjoyed some wine 🙂

I have to admit, this was my favourite weekend so far this year! So much family time, being outside together with our kids, having some time as a couple and then relaxing a bit more on Sunday.

Sunday: Cross Train | Rest Day. I thought about doing a short run or a little cycling, I didn’t do anything. The girls had swimming and I got busy with house chores. In the evening I wrote this blog post I enjoyed more wine with my husband and relaxed.

Total Mileage This week: 37 km running, 17 k cycling, 1 yoga class!

Definitely my highest weekly mileage in about a year! My body was super achy Saturday night but after you take 30,000+ steps between walking and running, you should be achy. Though I’m achy, I’m happy 🙂

Oh, and I think I managed to avoid FOMO running the Bluenose for myself. I think between all my kids running, family time and enjoyed 15k with my husband, I didn’t feel like I missed out on anything! Now to enjoy Victoria day (Monday) off with my girls (Saï is working).

Where do you keep your training plans?

How was your week/weekend?

Have you ever run a race with your kids before? 

Anyone run Bluenose Marathon weekend ?

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I’m joining the Weekly Wrap “Guest Host Series” hosted by Wendy at Taking the Long Way Home,  HoHo Runs and MissSippiPiddlin.