Yesterday I received some interesting news. I’m not sure what I mean by interesting. Maybe it was just news. It was interesting to me, but may not be interesting to you. Before revealing the news, some context to pique interest. Continue reading
Posted in Running Tids & Bits
Tagged exercise, fitness, health, running, summer, trail running
Almost. I almost ran for an entire season without tumbling to the earth in a blaze of glory.
Posted in Running Tids & Bits, The Doctor Is In
Tagged exercise, fitness, health, running, running injury, summer, trail running
I’ve already complained about summer joggers. Winter runners are friendly. Summer jogger are not. My return hello/nod/gesture of acknowledgement is about 90% in winter. In summer that per cent dips toward 10%*. Continue reading
A friend helpfully shared this with me and now I helpfully share this with you. Do you suffer from sweaty balls? Sweaty breasts?
www.sofreshsodry.com
Posted in The Doctor Is In, The Gear Junkie
Tagged exercise, fitness, health, marathon, running, summer, sweat
I admit, even though it happens every year I’m always caught off guard by summer. I remember I don’t like it, but I forget the intensity of that dislike, the misery of dripping sweat and huffing like a steam engine as I run slower than marathon race pace. Continue reading
Posted in Running Tids & Bits
I am about to write something very controversial. And it doesn’t involve run skirts, Gallowalking or barefeet. Continue reading
This weekend I practiced my Baywatch beach running. Continue reading
Posted in Running Tids & Bits
Ahh, suspense. I run my first contest and then go on vacation before announcing the winner. Of course I didn’t mention I was going on vacation because you would figure out who I am and where I live and you would come and steal my Garmin. Not that I don’t trust my trustworthy readers. But this is The Internet and danger lurks everywhere. Like around the pervy googlers trying to find all sorts of seedy things related to running shorts. For the record (and so I don’t give you any ideas) your attempt to steal my Garmin would be futile. I have an elaborate security system that may or may not involve a series of tin-can booby traps. Also, it always travels with me. Not that it saw even ten seconds of action during my non-Labour Day holiday.
After the fires of hell summer I have suffered (and during which laid to rest all hopes of a fall marathon) I finally take a few days to head to the beach and … I’m sure you can see where this is headed … find but a single day with a few scant hours of sun sandwiched between long dreary days of rain and gale force winds. Mother Nature: UNCLE! On the upside, I watched approximately 200 hours of movies featuring giant animals killing people (my first favourite kind of lame movie) and end of the world natural disaster movies (my second favourite kind of lame movie). The latter of which I’m sure is unrelated to the end of the world signs I witnessed all summer on my thermometer.
As for the contest, I’ll announce a winner tomorrow.
Title Reference: Loverboy – Working for the Weekend.
Posted in Running Tids & Bits
After a long run I’m often found lounging about with my running mates, an over-priced Italian-sized cup of hot chocolate, extra hot, skim milk and light whip in my hand. My mates lean towards coffee, a substance I do not drink. As the only person in North America to have never consumed a cup of coffee, let alone an over-priced Italian cup of Americano beans, I am unfamiliar with its effects on the body. Discussing, as we are apt to do, the humidity-induced PB dream-crushing fatigue someone mentioned that despite being tired, the caffeine left him wired.
Not one to let an opportunity to rhyme pass me by, I proclaimed him tired and wired, and a new catch phrase was born. How do you feel after a 30K training run and an infusion of caffeine?
Tired and wired.
Title Reference: Beastie Boys – Intergalactic. 1998.
Ahh, the August civic holiday long weekend. Seems like so long ago. Sun, sand, great lakes and the always smoking hot 58th running of the Shore to Shore Road Race. I don’t need to remind my faithful readers that I do not like warm weather running. And by “do not like” I mean “passionately hate and want to hibernate with my running shoes until September”. But this is a nice race. Only $25, the earnings go to family literacy programs, and for a small race the aid stations are numerous and bus shuttle service impressive (I don’t use it, but I’m impressed they have one) and a generous post-race fruit feast … so even though a few years ago I vowed ‘never again will I pay money to run in August’, how could I resist?
The race runs from the shores of Lake Huron across the peninsula to the shores of Georgian Bay, a scenic 13Kish route across escarpment territory. As the more clever among you have deduced, that’s why it’s called the Shore to Shore. Escarpment, noun, a steep slope or long cliff that results from erosion or faulting and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevations. So the route is a little up and down with a final downhill quadbuster in the last half kilometre. With little shade we were lucky to run under overcast skies, although the oppressive humidity ensured there was enough torture to toughen us up. Although the race attracts a solid field, it is collegial and supportive in that 200 personsized race kind of way. To wit, as I passed a very nice woman from the Saugeen Track & Field Club gave me a hearty well done and offered me some of the Gatorade her on the course support crew provided. So nice.
Husband and I ran this as leg one of a 27K long run, so we didn’t race (and I couldn’t anyway, at 95% humidity) as we needed to save our energy for 14K on the Bruce Trail that we never really found. Instead we finished our run on lonesome country roads beside mountainous piles of bear poop and an invasion of flying insects and I had a complete run-down, but that’s a story for another day. Or a story to repress.
Title Reference: The Drifters – Under the Boardwalk. 1964.
Posted in My Amazing Races, Running Tids & Bits
Tagged exercise, fitness, race, race report, race results, running, summer, weather
One thing about Husbands. They sweat. A lot. Especially when they run in iftheweathermansayshumidexonemoretimeiwillcry temperatures. And it doesn’t always smell pretty. I now use the poorly named Marathon Scented Deoderant, so I know I’m daisy (I mean “marathon”) fresh, but Husband is reluctant to try my Marathon strength protection. Instead he smells “manly”. And tries to hug me after runs. And I try to squirm away like Penolope Pussycat from Pepe Le Peu. And in the end I reluctantly give in. It’s worth it.
Title Reference: The Police – Don’t Stand So Close to Me. 1980.
Posted in Running Tids & Bits
Once again I hit the dirt – not literally, this time – for another trail race. This one was just under 12K and I finished with no blood or tears, but there was a little sweat. On the technical scale this was much easier than my last trail race, perhaps because I didn’t try for a full flip at 9K.
The race director sends us the most amusing updates, like this pre-race description of terrain:
In the second km you will enter the forest. This km is a hilly, rooty, Godforsaken little patch of nature … you’re going to love it. If you take it too aggressively or lose your focus, you WILL go to the ground. Tripping hazards everywhere. Brush up on your four letters words. You may need them.
In trail running I found a key weakness in my fitness. The inability (or reluctance) to run down hills at a pace faster than glacial. I am endlessly concerned about tripping, a not unfounded fear as I was nearly taken out by an out-of-control downhill runner who hit a root on his downward spiral sprint. I heard his panicked four-letter words and thumping from behind and I narrowly escaped getting caught in his rolling snowball as I leapt to the side. He apologized and gasped out an I’m okay, so all was forgiven. This is why I crawl down hills.
The location was lovely, although the new park facilities did not stand up to the test of a few hundred runners with nervous bladders and much flushing. The course was a double loop, which I rather liked. On a bad day I would find it tough to run past that finish banner for another go around, but on a normal day I like the finish line cheering and it helps me to know what to expect in the second half. I tend to run solid negative splits on these types of course, and this was no exception with an almost three-minute win on lap two. With the sport runners finishing after one lap, the second lap was rather quiet and I often found myself alone in the woods. Except for the poor guy I passed in the final two kilometre who said he was “bonking bigtime”. Hee, bigtime. I hadn’t heard that one in a while. I crossed the line in style, bought a celebratory hat, and went to brunch with my friends. There are worse ways to spend a Saturday. Although I am secretly disappointed I don’t have a story about a run-in with a giant hogweed. Not a fatal run-in, but an amusing near-miss anecdote. Alas, no near death experiences for me for you.
And yes, I’ve already signed up for the final race of the series in October.
p.s. A special shout-out to KLJ from toronotworkout.com (check our her race report) on finishing her first trail race and to two of my buddies who won group awards.
Update: Turns out I won an age group award as well. I knew I liked trial running! Or maybe I just like medals.
Title Reference: The Cure: A Forest. 1980. Title credit to Dave.
Posted in Running Tids & Bits
Tagged exercise, fitness, health, race, race report, race results, summer, trail running, weather
Signs you need a haircut:
1. Your ponytail hangs low enough on your back to trap your neck sweat, becoming wetter and heavier as the run progresses until you need to stop and wring out your hair.
2. This may also be a sign that it is too damn hot to run.
3. No, I probably won’t stop complaining about the weather.
4. Until September.
5. I really hope by September.
Title Reference: Five Man Electrical Band – Signs. 1971.
Posted in Running Tids & Bits
The last couple of weekends I’ve left the unbearable heat of the city for some trail running … and have had the great fortune to enjoy a post-run dip in my new best friend’s salt water pool. Also, he fed me. Twice. Like a stray dog I may never go away. I’m reasonably certain that a group of sweaty runners jumping into the pool tripled the salination level. I sure hope the machinery doesn’t corrode. Even though I’m a skeptic and the “science” is sketchy at best, this salt water pool has made me a believer in the curative powers of the epsom salt bath. My nearly fatal wounds from My First Trail Race healed in record time, a miracle I attribute to my hour-long play in the salt water.
Title Reference: Night Swimming – REM. 1992.
The summer of 2010, otherwise known as the summer I nearly* gave up running.
* to be confirmed.
Title Reference: Black Crows – Hard to Handle. 1990.
Posted in Running Tids & Bits
My Running Shorts: short stories about my life on the run.
