injury

Maritime Race Weekend Training Week 11

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 22 Comments

It’s race week! This Friday is the start of the Maritime Race Weekend events, with the Sunset 5k that everyone runs. Saturday is the Sunrise 5k/10k/half/full plus a pirate parade later that afternoon (kids walk).

Even though my training has come to a halt (basically), I’m still looking forward to the weekend and yes running/walking in both events. Maritime Race Weekend is such a great event and SO much energy has gone into it…I’m not just talking all those weeks the runners have been training. The race director and her team, pour hours into this weekend year round. I’m excited to see old and new friends, watch my husband run his half and just be in a positive environment, especially since I’m a little bummed about not running my half.

Half Marathon Plans

Well, it was supposed to be my fourth half marathon and I questioned it from the beginning (which I’m regretting now). Anyway…as my long runs increase I got more excited about completing the half only to come down with another injury playing soccer. That’s life, right! You make decisions and you have to live with the outcomes even IF YOU DON’T LIKE THEM. I am now fine with what I will be running this weekend but don’t worry MRW half marathon…you are still on my list.

What was Planned VS What Really Happened:

Monday September 5th: Rest Day | 9k Bike Ride. I got up early to get out for a short bike ride before the girls and I went to the city to spend the day with my family, Saï had to work. Other then being chased by a dog, the ride was great.

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Tuesday: Yoga | Missed yoga. I was in a meeting with my boss and it didn’t finish until 12:10 and yoga starts at 12…bummer 😦

Wednesday: 8k | Rest Day. Was thinking about running but folded too much laundry and lost my motivation.

Thursday: Hills | Rest Day. I was actually planning to run on my treadmill and even bought more tape for my ankle but it was like a switch went off and my motivation disappeared. I was still just bummed out that I’m not running.

Friday: Rest Day | 16k Bike Ride. After dinner and bed time for the girls, I got out for a quick bike ride….felt great! 16k in 58:58. My ankle loves cycling.

Saturday: 16k Run | 45 minute walk + Ran 5k. The girls and I went for a walk/run/bike ride  on our local trail. Hilary had a tantrum within the first 30 seconds so she decided to run/skip and walk while Lilly biked the whole time. The did a little off-road or off-trail riding/running while I stayed put on the crusher dust. Mama doesn’t need to roll her messed up ankle again!

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Ummm…what, you ran? Yup, you read that right. I gave up on the “no running” rule and went out for a run. I taped my ankle and off I went. The first kilometre I was unsure about it but just felt like I needed to settle into the tape support. Around 1.5k in, I wasn’t sure if my ankle was sore or it it was me working through the tape so I walked for a bit. Just as I was about to turn home I started running again and everything felt really good. So, I ran and ran and ran until I got home, finishing 5k.

It felt so nice to run again. My lungs didn’t die and I wanted to run faster but didn’t think pushing the pace was smart. There were so many kids outside playing. I ran by one group playing “kick the can” and was so tempted to kick it and keep running but I didn’t. Could you imagine if I did that!!!!

I managed to run 6:45/km (starting off) and finished with 6:14/km and 6:07/km. The pace just felt right. With my injury and not having run in three weeks, I was surprised about my pace. My ankle felt good that evening and slightly sore the next morning. I am finding I need support so I wear my burks non-stop and the pain goes away. Basically, I live in my burks right now.

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Sunday: Cross Train | Rest Day. Took it easy but thought about going for a ride on my bike. I didn’t go as I just ran out of time. My legs were a little stiff which felt kinda nice too. Again, no regrets about going for a run.

KM this week: 5k running, 25 cycling.

KM this training cycle: 137 km running and no more planned before race day.

Overall: I’m so happy I got out on my bike a few times, it gave me a little rush of working out again and working your body hard. Also, I’m pretty happy with my 5k run.

What now? I was going to wait until Thursday to decided on my distance for Saturday but decided after my 5k run that I should only run/walk the 5k/5k not 5k/10k. I’m thinking a double race of two 5k races will be enough on my ankle. Also I’m still holding out I can get in on a cancellation this week but if I don’t it’s not the end of the world. I do have an appointment Sept 21st, so that day is getting closer.

In case you missed some of my favourite training posts: training plan; favourite long run, PEI vacation running,  the soccer injury, and first week of recorded training. 

How was your weekend?

Anyone run, race, train?

Did you feel like you were wrapping up summer this weekend?

Rounding off 2015 ~ A Year in Review

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 10 Comments

December 31st 2015 !!!

Just like that another year is done. I’ve been trying to decided if I should wrap up the year on the blog and finally pulled it together. This is how things went for Piper’s Run!

January

I started off the year by running my first kilometer with my daughter Lilly and am planning to make this a tradition. Though I was still newly injured with my hamstring, I thought I was on the mend – nope, nadda. I’m still happy my first km was with her.

January PR 2015

We managed to get some skiing in with Lilly while Hilary hung out snowshoeing around with Grandad or Grammy. This year all four of us will be on the hill….well, we will be on the hill with a few toddler tantrums I’m sure. We are all ready to go!

February

My 2015 goals pretty much went out the door when my hamstring was not getting any better, though it would take me months to realise this, I mean come to terms with this. I’ll write another post about my 2015 goals.

PR My Motivation Girls

I spent a lot of February – April with my Physiotherapist, my Massage Therapist and even an Osteopath. I also spent a lot of time clearing snow from my driveway (we have seven major storms last winter that started at the end of January and went into April).

Snow 2015

March

My hamstring was only slightly getting better and we got MORE snow! My Dad had a heart attack which turned life upside down but only for a little bit as he’d be back to normal pretty quickly. I ventured out at work and did some Graphic Facilitation that turned out to be a lot of fun!

winter march 22

I also volunteered at the Hypothermic Half Marathon – this was the most ice I’ve seen at a running event and that wasn’t for post race recovery. Lots of injuries that day (not for me).

April

I had my first DNS due to my hamstring injury. The pain in my hamstring wasn’t getting any better though each physio/massage appointment I thought it was…it wasn’t; I was still injured.

May

I started with a new {sports} physio therapist which was the best decision ever! This finally had me on the road to recovery with my hamstring. Lilly ran her 2km race at the Bluenose Marathon and I walked/ran with her.

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Me and my girl

I missed another race {Bluenose Half Marathon} and wasn’t overly enthused with that. However, I decided to be a spectator along the half marathon route. I also met some RunATCan members, John Stanton and got to be a speaker at the Marathon with some other awesome runners.

Bluenose Weekend 2015 Running Room Runatcan

June

My hamstring recovery was coming along slowly but moving in the right direction. I changed my running goals for the year and felt so much better even if running 5k was extremely hard to do.

Lilly turned 5!!

Happy 5th Lilly

Birthday fun & Zoo!

I even managed to complete the 30 day plank challenge! I also started training for what would be my 3rd half marathon.

30 day planks june

That’s A LOT of planking!

Still reading? Thanks!

July

Morning runs, summer vacation and running through the sprinkler with our girls was how I spent July! I was introduced to cupping by my physiotherapist and wanted to cry. However that’s what started to really help my hamstring heal.

july 14 run

August

I had some beautiful training runs while on vacation with my family in PEI. We swam in the ocean, ate when we wanted to and enjoyed the sunshine!

pei beach 1

I also had some great long runs; week 9 & week 10.

September

A big step in our family: Lilly started school!!!!!! Though school was going really well, my running was falling apart. Something happened to my cuboid bone in my foot and couldn’t run my half marathon at Maritime Race Weekend. I was so frustrated because I was doing everything right only to have it all go wrong.

Luckily I was able to volunteer at Maritime Race Weekend and hand out medals.

MRW 2015 2

Once I got my foot sorted out AND my hamstring, I started to refocus my running on training for the PEI Half Marathon.

October

I became a 261 Fearless Ambassador, we celebrated Thanksgiving, the girls ran the kids run at Valley Harvest and I did my first gig at pacing a race! I paced the 10k – 1:10 finish at the Valley Harvest Marathon and LOVED it! I finished in 1:09:59!

VHM Kids Run 2015

The following week I managed to finally run my 3rd half marathon at the PEI Marathon and spent four days with my husband sans the kiddies!

PEI 3rd Half Marathon 2015

November

I was rocking the lunch time workouts with my co-workers and then got sick with a nasty 3 week virus that knocked me off my feet.

I did finally nailed the crow pose in yoga class – a goal of mine for the year. We celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary and I got to have some fun taking some running photos!

MRW photo bloopers

December

Oh December…you sent us on a roller coaster. We started off celebrating Hilary’s 3rd birthday and Saï’s 40th. My niece was supposed to have heart surgery on Dec 3rd but got moved to Dec 17th and she is recovering just perfect now; thanks for all your comments, thoughts and prayers. I’m so happy my brother and his wife have that day behind them.

Ava Mae

I almost forgot I ran a Santa 5k Run with some friends – that was fun! Piper’s Run turned 4, and I became a member of Team Nuun for 2016. I finished off December by running a full marathon over six days and my hamstring didn’t complain – BIG WIN!

TTP Christmas Marathon

If you are still reading, thank you 🙂 It’s been a roller coaster of a year with running but somehow I managed to run 844 km. Crazy! So many lessons learned this past year and I’m sure hoping 2016 treats me better in the running department.

I’m working on a “goals” post from 2015 and slowly thinking about 2016 but not in a rush to write it.

Hope you all had a fabulous 2015 and wishing you all the best in 2016!

Happy New Year!

How was your 2015?

What’s one big thing you want to do in 2016?

What are you ready to say goodbye to in 2015?

Started September Off with a BANG!

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 8 Comments

Since August was such a fun month between vacationing in PEI, swimming in the ocean, running in the heat and humidity, I thought I’d start September off with a BANG!

Tuesday night, I went to the hospital right after work. It wasn’t kid related {thank goodness} but it was for me. You are probably asking “what’s wrong now?” Well, I was having some serious pain in my right foot and it wouldn’t go away. I couldn’t walk without being in pain. Then I got a little panicky. I had run 18k on Sunday and could barely walk Monday and Tuesday without being in a lot of pain.

I went prepared with some food, books and I had my phone. I ate all my snacks and got bored reading so I started reading running related articles from a few Facebook groups. In the end, I ended up having an x-ray it was confirmed that I DIDN’T have a stress fracture! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!! However, the Doctor couldn’t explain the pain I was having, said I could keep running and hopefully it would get better on it’s own! Okie, dokie!

Lilly made this for me while I was at Emerg.

Lilly made this for me while I was at Emerg.

It’s better today but I’m taking it easy tonight and not running {again}. One more long run on the weekend and then *fingers crossed* my foot doesn’t hurt again. I’m feeling good about Maritime Race Weekend 5k & Half Marathon.

I did managed to get a large amount of kilometres in this month, the most this year! I think I loved the month of August because we had a lot of family time outside. The weather was a little unmanageable at times but still awesome summer weather.

Taken in Charlottetown, PEI.

Taken in Charlottetown, PEI.

September brings some new adventures for our family as Lilly will start school tomorrow! She’s very excited and can’t wait to go! Hilary’s a little upset she’s not going but will be the big kid at day care now.

I’m exciting to finally run my 1st race of the year which technically will be the 5k at Maritime Race Weekend. I’m nervous about my 3rd half marathon but so looking forward to the people, the route and just enjoying running 21.1km after being injured for so long.

So, here’s to September! {Pretend I’m holding a glass up to you!}.

How was your August? Did you get any vacation? Run any races?

Any big plans for September?

What are you looking forward to the most this month?

No Races Coming Up

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 16 Comments

I have no races coming and I am totally fine with it (for once)! This time last year I had already run one race and had a handful more planned/registered for.

So far I have only actually registered for one double race: Maritime Race Weekend Sept 11th (5k) and 12th (1/2 Marathon). Don’t worry that will change…in time.

registration for run

The first race I ran last in 2014 was the MEC Race One and it happened last Sunday in Halifax (and all across Canada). I thought about running it a while back but with a pulled hamstring and limited fitness I decided not to. Also, I didn’t feel like packing up the girls and heading into the city for the weekend.

I thought I might be upset that I didn’t run it but after seeing some of the photos and having a great weekend with my girls, I’m happy I didn’t. One run over that I didn’t run last year and I’m okay with that.

There are two other winter races I wanted to do: Frostbite 8 miler (Feb 21) and the Hypothermic Half Marathon (March 1st). Back in November I was trying to decide if I would run the Hypo Half as it was on a beautiful trail in Halifax that at the half way point, would have me running near my parent’s subdivision. Prime kiddie cheering section! My only concern was the snow and ice and running for 21.1 km on those conditions wasn’t something I was ready to commit to. Good thing I didn’t register as I’m on the injured list 😦

The Frostbite 8 miler runs the almost identical course to the Sackville Sneaker Shredder 10k I ran last November. This event was well-organized but I hated it! After having a conversation with my running buddy who reminded me how much I disliked the course, I decided not to register. So…it’s out.

My running buddy and I keep emailing each other potential races but I have still yet to sign up for anything. I’m just not in a rush because I want to get my hamstring 100% better before I jump into training. I have good and bad news on my hamstring/full marathon training but am going to leave you hanging another day to find out how it’s going.

Do you run all the same races each year?

Ever miss a race a regret it / not regret it?

When’s your next race (or event)?