Mom On The Run

As you may be aware, I’m training for the Mississauga Half-Marathon (May 16, 2010). When I tell people this I’m often asked how I train for a half-marathon. Being as sarcastic as I am, I often have to stop myself from responding: “By running”. I think what these curious bystanders really want to know is how do you build up the running distance? How do you build a half-marathon training program? So below is an outline of how I structured my training program. I started my program in January only able to run 3k! I hadn’t ran in 4 months and when I last ran in September my average distance was 5k. I only run 4 times a week. I now can complete 13k easily and my pace has improved by an average of more than 30 seconds/km (I’ve also lost 7 8 lbs).

I’ve phased my training because SPEED is a combo of ENDURANCE and STRENGTH. You can’t build strength without endurance and you need strength and endurance to build speed.

Jan & Feb was my endurance phase. On December 27th I began running after being sedentary for 4 months (I had fallen and broken a few rbs and they needed some time to heal). 3k was HARD! However I pushed myself every weekend to run a few more k’s and was finally able to run 13k this past Sunday. My long runs are slightly slower than my mid-week runs by about 20 seconds/km. I did this because my goal is speed – if I train long and slow I will perform long and slow.

March – my focus will be on strength while maintaining my endurance. I’ll be doing this by doing hill repeats on Wednesdays and my weekend long run will remain consistent at 13-15k.

April – this will be my hardest training month, and this is the month that injuries often appear, so I will need to listen to my body. I will be bringing all of the hard work form the past 3 months together on Wednesdays to do speedwork on the Ching Track. I will run 800m as fast as I can followed by short rest intervals. My weekend long runs will be consistent at 15k-18k.

May – this will be my two week taper – I will slowly decrease my running distances during the two weeks. That said, recent research has indicated that the shorter distances should still be run at a high intensity to maintain the speed that was built up. It’s possible that speed and strength is lost faster than endurance is. (I think this was in the March issue of Runner’s World).

Taking my phases into consideration, I’ve structured my training program to alternate hard/easy/rest days to allow progress while hopefully perventing injuries:

Mondays: Easy around the park 2-3 laps depending on how my legs feel.
Tuesdays: Yoga stretching and lengthening of muscles (I call this my “active rest” day).
Wednesdays: Longer run 3x around the park or Hills or Speedwork
Thursdays: Powerwalk with weights (sport specific strengthening of the upper body, as this contributes to running speed) or if my legs are sore I swim with pull-bouys.
Fridays: Easy around the park 2-3 laps depending on how my legs feel.
Saturdays: Long run – I’ve built up my distance from 3K in late December to 13K now – I will continue to build up my distance over the next 8 weeks to 18K
Sundays: REST!

I would be more than happy to help coach you and anyone else who wants to learn to run! I am working on completing a learn-to-run forum where I can offer you advice, tips and a training program. If you’re interested, sign up for my newsletter (in my sidebar) so that I can help you on your way!

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Wow!  Everyone did a fantastic job in Week #1 of the Healthy Challenge! 

Getting the results took a little bit longer than I had expected, so for that I apologize.  There was a four way tie for first place between: Amanda, Colleen, Kia and Sylvie!  Way to go ladies!  Because there was a four way tie, I had to use Random.org to choose a winner:

Yay!  The winner is Colleen from http://kennedyandzach.blogspot.com/ ! Way to go Colleen!  See – eating your fruits and veggies gets you free stuff too! I’ll contact you via twitter for your address so that I can send you one of these cute water bottles:

Week #2 will be finished tomorrow night – I also want to remind you that this is a week by week contest.  Each week you start fresh, so don’t worry if you didn’t get all of your servings in all 7 days, you can try again fresh each Monday.  Also, if you are new to the Healthy Challenge you can still enter for Week #3.  

Here’s how you can participate:
1.  Complete the form on the original post.
2. I’ll send you an email next Monday asking you how many days you were able to eat all 7-8 or 8-10 servings of fruits and veggies (Monday to Sunday). You will have 24 hrs to respond. If you do not respond then I will assume you aren’t participating.

Good luck everyone!!!

Here are the results.

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And the winners are….

#9 – Tricia of http://www.desperatelyseekingsilence.com/
#1 – Kia of http://bodhibear.blogspot.com/
#7 Keita

Congratulations ladies!

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Wow! January flew right past me! How about you?

This year I made a few resolutions so I’ve decided each month to go back and re-visit them. To re-cap, my resolutions were to:

1. Learn how to cook
2. Eat healthier
3. Feel better about myself
4. Train for a half-marathon
5. Lose 16lbs (get back to my wedding weight)

So how am I doing with my goals?

1. Learn how to cook
   I’ve definitely been trying and making a big effort in this department. This has been a rather expensive little goal because previously all of our meals came from packages, so I had no spices in the house with the exception of pepper, salt and cinnamon. Purchasing all the spices I need has been expensive, but it’s been worth it. I’ve made a few things that my family has loved: Banana bread, Low-Fat Turkey Chili, Tuna casserole, Beef stew, Beans & Bacon Saute (These recipes can all be found on my Fitness Cheerleader site) and I’ve made some stuff my family hated: Tufu & Veggie Stirfry in a Peanut Sauce (Peanut Butter FAIL), The Best Ever Mashed Potatoes (Parmesan Cheese FAIL). I also made a Quinoa & Black Bean Salad that I love and have been bringing for my lunches.
2. Eat healthier
   This goes hand-in-hand with learning to cook. So far I’ve been successful with this. We’ve definitely eaten a lot less packaged foods, though there have been a few nights where my kids ended up eating a bowl of grapes and a peanut butter sandwich for dinner because the meal I tried to cook didn’t turn out very well. I’ve had a lot of healthy left overs for my lunches, and I even made healthier choices the few times I did eat out. Oh yeah! I almost forgot! I CUT OUT COFFEE!! I’m now drinking decaf green tea instead. I haven’t completely given up caffeine though – I do have one caffeinated green tea from Tim Horton’s each day. This is as much a social thing as a nutritional day because I walk over, and line up at Tim Horton’s every day with one of my co-workers. The nice part about this is that I now sleep WAY better! Yay!

3. Feel better about myself
   This one has been really hard, though I’m starting to be more aware of my mood cycles and have picked out some triggers. Such as:
   • Sleep (or lack of it)
   • Too much caffeine
   • Processed foods
   • Not exercising
   • Missing hubby

Thankfully most of these things I have control of. I can go to sleep earlier, minimize my caffeine intake, eat healthy (clean foods), exercise. I’ll keep working on these things over the year.

4. Stop rushing around and plan ahead
   I did well with this for the first two weeks of the year but I’ve totally slacked off in this department. Brooke has been sleeping horribly (she’s transitioning to a big girl bed) so I’ve been “too tired” in the evenings to pack stuff up, then sleeping in because I’ve spent an hour or more listening to her whimper and try to fall back asleep each night. I’ve done a great job planning meals, grocery shopping and having food on hand. I really need to make more of an effort on the packing and preparing lunches ahead of time thing.
5. Train for a half-marathon
   I’ve really done a great job over the past month sticking to my training plan. This week has been a bummer due to my calf injury, but I got my 10K in this weekend which was completely awesome!
6. Lose 16lbs (get back to my wedding weight)
   I have no idea why being larger than I was 6 yrs ago bugs me so much. I have had two kids after all. But I know I can be fitter, leaner, stronger with more energy – the kind I had before kids. The training, sleeping, healthy eating and planning are all helping with this goal and so far I’m down 6lbs. Not bad for 5 weeks! At this rate I’ll be down to the weight by our 6 yr anniversary on April 6, 2010.

How are your resolutions going? Have you been sticking to them? Don’t worry if you haven’t – you can start over again any time. Every meal and every day is a new fresh start!

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I’ve had a lot of time to reflect back on last year through my blog posts and sadly, not many good things happened, except for my awesome new job. Love, love, love!!  It’s such a perfect fit for me! I could list all the bad things that happened in 2009, but that’s not what I want 2010 to be about. 

This year I’m going to be positive and focus on the positive. I want to plan out my days to reduce stress and avoid rushing through everything at the last minute, I want to get enough sleep, eat healthy, be active and live in the moment.  I’ve already started making those changes:

1. I’m a www.mamavation.com cheerleader – yeah me! Cheering and supporting all of the ladies in their weight loss efforts.  ‘Cause I’m just oh-so-positive and chipper lately…  The girls I’ve met are incredibly awesome and have even inspired me! Cheering them on and helping them reach their weightloss goals has really helped my self-esteem.  I feel good and proud that I’m now using my Kinesiology degree for something.
2. I’m training for a half-marathon!  Woot!  I’ve ran 17km over the past 4 days!!! The Half-marathon is the Mississauga Half-Marathon on May 16, 2010.  I can’t wait!
3. I’m packing lunches right after putting the kids to bed, and planning out our dinners with Google calendar. I’m oing to try and take the stress out of my life by planning ahead, grocery shopping Friday nights and hopefully avoiding fast food. 

I’m sick of being an emotional train-wreck.  I’m sick of feeling down and unmotivated – this year I’m making a big effort to be happy, healthy and stress-free. 

So ummm.. yeah – that’s about all I had to say.  I’m going to take my shower now (I stink from my 7K run), then lay out tomorrow’s clothes and head to bed.  Good night!

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This past week has been very stressful and challenging for my husband and I. My husband’s mom has Cancer. She had a hysterectomy in June, began Chemo in August, finished chemo in November and has now begun 6-8 wks of daily radiation. Two weeks ago she lost her balance, fell and spent a week in the hospital so my hubby went up to Ottawa, ON to visit her for 5 days and I got to spend yet another period of solo-parenting. What does this have to do with Christmas stress? Well 1/2 way his 6 hr drive back home my hubby’s engine blew. Gone – according to the Mazda dealership in Belleville he brought it into. A $6 grand expense we just hadn’t planned for with our 3 yr old car.

After hubby’s car ordeal I decided to take my truck in for some routine maintenance that ended up costing us $300 (oil change, engine flush, air filter, cabin air filter etc…). It was a good thing I brought it in because it was discovered that the cabin air filter was missing – not clogged and dirty – missing, as in never ever there. A cabin air filter filters dust, debris and emissions from other cars. They should be replaced every year, but I think this was the first time mine has been checked in the 7 yrs we’ve owned the truck. My routine maintenance has saved my life. Every day because I had no cabin air filter I’ve been sucking in carbon monoxide from the traffic I’ve been sitting in for an hour to and an hour from work each day. I’ve felt light headed, foggy, headachy and have been having an incredibly hard time focussing and functioning at work. Every night I’ve been exhausted – falling into bed most nights when the kids went to bed. I’ve had no energy to do anything – gaining weight, eating poorly, drinking a million coffees everyday and not exercising. I’ve felt amazing over the past week being off from work and not driving in my truck.

Unfortunately being home this week with our dog has brought to our attention that she’s sick. She’s a 10 yr old rottweiler that we rescued when she was 1 yr old – she’s trained for several marathons and 1/2 marathons with me over the years and has kept me company through 2 maternity leaves. Molly has been having bladder control problems that have been controlled by a weekly estrogen pill. WIth everything going on over the past 3 months hubby and I forgot to give her her pills – Molly has been leaking on her doggie bed. No big deal right? Just wash her doggie bed and give the dog her hormone pills. It’s not so simple because her pee spots are tainted red – she has blood in her urine. Yesterday and today I took her out for a run and when she peed on the grass her pee was dark red – almost pure blood. Molly’s kidney’s are failing and because of our car expenses we’re not sure what to do – we can barely afford a regular physical for her, never mind extensive tests, medications, surgery or even euthanasia for her. Hubby is bringing her to the vet tonight at 5 pm.

With worrying about my MIL, the dog, our cars and the normal Christmas stresses of cleaning, baking and wrapping I’ve been an emotional eating mess. I ate ALL the chocolate turtles + 2 other boxes of chocolate – arrgh! Yesterday and today I tried to redeem myself by running. According to my Nike + I ran 3.93km yesterday and 3.75km today (though both days I ran the exact same route).

Tomorrow (or tonight) we hope to pack up the car to head to trek up to Ottawa to see my MIL for Christmas. Though with everything going on it would make more sense to stay home with the sick dog, I just couldn’t live with myself if she took a bad turn and we missed out on seeing her at Christmas. I’m going to bring my running gear and try to eat as healthy as possible – though that’s always hard when being away from home. Here’s to a better week next week!

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