Month: August 2017

Week 9 Half Training MRW

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 8 Comments

What a week of running! This might be my first week (of 9) that I actually did all the running!!!!

What was Planned vs What Really Happened:

Monday: Stretch & Strengthen | Rest Day. I was done after four games of soccer on the weekend.

Tuesday: 8k | 8k morning run! I still can’t believe I managed this before work.

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Wednesday: 5k | 5k. Another morning run done before work!

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Thursday: 5k + Strengthening | 5k + SUP Yoga! Yup, another morning run before work AND I went to my first ever SUP Yoga class! I was super nervous about falling in the water but also because I didn’t know anyone going. Apparently,  my desire to try the sport trumped the desire to have a friend go with me. It was so much fun and I didn’t fall in. At the end of the class I even managed to hold a crow pose!

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Friday: Rest Day | Rest Day. FAVOURITE. DAY. OF. THE. WEEK!

Saturday: 15k Race | 18k Long Run. I was up early and hit the road by 5:47am and managed to finish my run in 2:00:02! It was really cool out and I was nervous I wasn’t dress warm enough but once again, you warm up once you get going.

It was an out and back kind of run with a few little spin offs into subdivisions and random roads. I was kinda hoping I’d be able to finish around 2 hours and when I was 2.5k from home I picked up my pace as I though I had just enough time. The last .3/km was uphill which wasn’t smart to finish on but I pushed it hard through the last few hundred meters.

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Sunday: Soccer Game|Rest day. I had to miss my soccer game as we were busy with two family parties: one celebrating my Mom’s 70th and another send off party for my brother and SIL as they are posted to another Province 😦

Weekly Mileage: 36km running, 1 SUP Yoga class. No soccer.

This was probably my best week of running and I’m really loving my early morning runs. This week coming will be a little all over the place as I’m on vacation and have an appointment with the Osteopath on Monday to sort out my back, SI joint and hip flexor, which means 2 days of rest (no activity).

How was your week?

Ever try SUP or SUP Yoga?

Are you into early morning runs or another time?

August Runfessions

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 19 Comments

How is it the last Friday of August already, seriously! At least we have a few more days left in the month but I’m not ready for summer to end, that’s for sure! The good news is that we’re on vacation next week so we’ll get to enjoy the last week of our summer before school starts!

Runfessions

First, I runfess that I totally forgot about writing this runfessions post! This month flew by rather fast!

I runfess that I’m STILL loving early morning runs. It’s hard getting up so early (5:30 AM) but running in the sometimes cooler temps is kinda lovely! There are less cars on the road, less heat, less stress even. If only I could permanently run all my runs first thing, I would!

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Having runfessed that….I runfess, I’m really struggling with getting enough sleep. My days are full (I’m sure yours are too) but I just can’t seem to shut off at night and get enough sleep my body needs. I’ve forced myself to go to bed at 9pm and 10pm this week, even though there were a million other things I needed to do: dishes, laundry, mow the lawn – which I wouldn’t do at night but can’t seem to find time to do that either! I have to make sleep a priority!

I runfess, though I’m running a half marathon in three weeks, I can hardly think about the actual race. Between wrapping up work before vacation, vacation, family parties this weekend and back to school coming up – my half marathon on Sept 16th isn’t on my mind. Yes, I’m doing all the training for it but it’s just become so routine that I feel like I’m forgetting about the actual race day. Don’t worry, come Sept 15th I’ll be a ball of nerves!

I runfess I’m in pain 😦 My upper back (car accident related from March), my SI joint, my hip flexor and my pinky finger (soccer injury last week) are killing me. Minus my finger, it’s all on the left side of my body. I’m just done with pain and ready to move on – why doesn’t my body get the message?

I runfess that I’m so happy soccer has finished for our girls. This week was the first week that we had nothing in the evenings since April!!! No joke! Next week is the same, minus one soccer game that I have. We still need to figure out what they are going to do this fall: back to swimming lessons, trying something new like basketball or something else. It’s nice for them each to have a sport/thing to do as come winter we try not to commit to anything so we can ski, snowshoe and just play out in the snow.

There, that’s all I need to runfess.

Do you have anything to runfess from this month?

How’s your fall shaping up?

Happy or sad that summer is coming to and end?

You can check out my other Runfession posts: July, June, May, April, March, February, and January. I’m linking up with Marcia for today’s Runfessions post. It’s hosted on the last Friday of each month.

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Week 8 Half Training Maritime Race Weekend

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 22 Comments

What a busy week! I’m starting to feel a little nervous at how fast this half marathon is approaching.

When I signed up for Maritime Race Weekend last December (yup!), it was just a plan. Now, it’s four weeks away. That’s four more weeks of running but also back to school and a whole new schedule for our family with both girls in school. This is going to be a short and sweet kinda of post.

What was Planned vs What Really Happened:

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  • Monday: Stretch & Strengthen | Coached U6 soccer one last time.
  • Tuesday: 7k | Yoga. I went to my weekly yoga class.
  • Wednesday: 40 minute tempo run| 5k Runch. Rough run.
  • Thursday:  5k + Strengthen|16k Long Run. You can read about it here. 
  • Friday: Rest Day| Rest Day. Nailed it again!
  • Saturday:  8k Pace | 2 Soccer Games in the rain (1 win, 1 loss)
  • Sunday:     16k Long Run| 2 Soccer Games in the heat and humidity (1 win, 1 loss).

It rained so much here Saturday, my whole body was soaked playing soccer – dripping socks and all. Sunday was extremely hot and humid, it was like night and day. Muddy/grassy cleats after Saturday’s games:

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I missed lots of running this week – roughly 13-15 km but I’m pretty sure the 4 games of soccer on the weekend made up for any missed mileage. Do you know how much you can run in a 60 minute soccer game? All I can say is that I’m thankful for subs!

Weekly mileage: 21k running, 4 soccer games, 1 yoga class.

This coming week we have absolutely nothing going on in the evenings….NOTHING!!!! I’m hoping I can get in a few morning runs, my long run and maybe even some strength training – you know, that workout I’ve been basically ignoring for the last eight weeks. Sorry for the short post. I managed to sprain my pinky finger playing soccer (collision with a group of people), so I’m trying not to use it much.

How was your weekend?

When was the last time you played (ran, walked) outside in the rain?

Anyone race this weekend? I know there were some local races here!

I’m linking up today with Ponder ‘N’ Wonder, HoHo Runs, and MissSippiPiddlin.

Dear Mid-Week Long Run

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 18 Comments

Dear Mid-Week Long Run,

You got me! I didn’t really want to do my long run mid week but life had me moving you around to another day. There would be no Sunday Runday. No early Saturday morning run like last week. No running in my sneakers this weekend!

My alarm was set for 5 am but my body woke up at 4:45 so I went with it. I had all my gear lined out and even a half a peanut butter sandwich and bottle of water waiting for me. I didn’t want to bonk on my run so I had to fuel myself with something.

I got dressed in the dark to avoid waking my husband – though I may have woken him. I snuck down the hallway, pass our daughter’s bedrooms trying not to wake them. I also hit every creak in our floor and thought for sure I’d wake up our dog and my long run plan would go out the door.

I laced up my sneakers on the deck in the cool morning air (12c) and questioned my compression socks, short-shorts and neon yellow t-shirt. Then I remembered that my body temperature would rise quickly and I’d be just fine.

Off I went with my husband’s headlamp (it’s better then mine) because I’ve misplaced my Night Runner lights (sad day). As I ran out of my subdivision, I’m pretty sure the truck that passed me thought he was seeing a ghost because who runs at 5:30 am for fun???

I continued on our main road along the sidewalk with my headlamp beating down on the ground in front of me. A handful of cars on the road, potentially shaking their heads at me “what is she doing?”. My pace was way too fast (6:20/km) and I was hoping that regret wouldn’t set in later in my run.

I ran and thought of nothing and everything. As a crossed the roads and picked my path to take, I found myself at a good hill that challenges me. Yes, I ran up it and back down. I slowly took out my GU that I found in the dark – dang… salted watermelon! I could have sworn I picked out chocolate outrage, my favourite. I downed the salted watermelon and some water and kept running.

Runner’s should never do math while running, it’s almost impossible. There I was, trying to calculate my estimate time of arrival at home as my husband had to hit the road for work. I said I’d be back by 7:15. I had 15 minutes to run 3k but my legs were getting tired. Somehow, I managed to pick up the pace and climb that last hill home.

Once I got home, I grabbed our dog’s leash and yelled up the stairs that I’d be back in 13 minutes. My math work had calculated that it would take me roughly 12-13 minutes so I went with 13. I still had another 2k to run plus get a walk in with my dog before my husband left. Genius idea – run your dog for 2k. Carmacks is a retired sled dog, so he’s all for running and that he did. Our first km together was 6:05/km – whoops!. We settled down for our second km at 6:18/km. My legs were on fire but I finished my 16k long run by 7:20 am.

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Long run, you don’t get off that easy – the layers of salt on my face and sweat all over me washed off quickly in the shower but oh you decided to surprise me with chaffing! My heart rate monitor left a nice little mark behind but it was my left hip that really surprised me. Apparently, my belt shifted a little and the water in the shower notified me of the chaffing by screaming in pain – you all know that feeling.

I stretched, ate a quick breakfast and got the girls out the door (my husband fed them and got them ready for the day) and I, off to work. I sat and stood at my desk throughout the day and only started to crash around 2:30 pm. A little walk around the town and I was good for the rest of the afternoon.

I just had to make it to 8pm (or around there) as my youngest daughter had a soccer event that would have us on our feet for a few hours. Mid week long run – you were a good one. Now let’s hope this weekend’s soccer tournament (in the rain) treats me just as good.

Cheers,

Another Mother Runner.

Ever switch up your long runs to mid week?

Cooler temps in the morning for you or still hot and humid?

Ever try to do math while running?

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

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