How does your garden grow?

I’ve been planting a garden for a few years now, but it’s always been a struggle to reap much of a harvest from it.  Between the kids, dogs, and my horrible weeding habits, it’s been very hit or miss.  This year, things have changed! Last fall, my dad helped me build two more garden boxes to finish off the terrace of boxes in the west end of my yard.  Then this spring, he and I built a fence to block the garden from the rest of the yard.  Finally I can keep the vegi’s safe from unwanted attention from both the kids and dogs!

Rundles Revenge Race Report

A few months ago, at a Brain Training Seminar by local ultra-runner and now Guinness record holder, Dave Proctor, I won an entry into Rundles Revenge.  I was at the time, already registered for the Powderface Marathon (actually 44.4 km’s – bonus!) the following weekend.  That combined with the fact that this race was only 4 weeks after the Calgary Marathon, meant that I didn’t think I would/should race a 50k, but the 25k distance seemed doable, especially if I kept the effort easy.

How to run a ‘training’ race.

I have a 25k trail race on Sunday, then next Saturday I have a 44k trail race.  I’m only 3 weeks post marathon right now, and have my sights set on my 100k race in September.  At this point, the most important thing is that I can get in some good, consistently high mileage (including back to back long runs) in all summer.  I want to be able to go to these races, and have fun, see my friends, run in them, but I don’t want to deal with all the taper and recovery time that comes with longer races.  The solution?  Run them as a training race.

It can be hard for some of us to turn off our competitive nature (I’m totally looking in the mirror on this one!)  I love a good race, and love to chase an AG placement, or other kind of placement stat.  Here are some ideas on how to turn that racing mentality off so that you can get a good supported training run in.

1. Run with a friend.  It’s much easier to run easy if you’ve got a friend to chat with during the race.  This Sunday, Lori and I plan to run together and to help keep each other honest on our pacing.
2. Extend the length.  A few years ago I ran the Police Half Marathon here in Calgary as a training run.  I had a 20 miler scheduled that day, so I went and ran 11 km’s as a ‘warm-up’ before the half.  It’s much easier to not race too hard if you go into the run tired!
3. Seed yourself correctly.  If you’re planning on just running for fun, don’t line up at the tape!  Line up further back, and even if it means some extra walk breaks or traffic jams on single track trail, it’s better than going out too fast.
4. Make a run-walk strategy.  In road races, you can plan to walk a minute every 10 minutes or so, or in trail races, you can plan to walk all the hills.  Either way, walk breaks are a great way to slow down your average pace and make for an easier run.
5. Carry a hydration pack, or your own fuel.  To me, a run always feels a little more like a training run when I’m geared up like it is one.  So I try to simulate that in training races.  I will carry my hydration pack, or my fuel belt, and I’ll try to fuel/hydrate from what I have on me for at least part of the race.  I’m not sure if it’s psychological, or the weight from carrying something, but it helps to slow me down and take things less seriously.
6. Use your tech… how many of us have a fancy GPS watch that we only ever use the Start/Stop button on?  Most of these watches have settings where you can set up a pace alert, or a virtual partner.  Set it up with a minimum pace that you want to run, and slow down when it beeps at you.

How about you?  Do you run races as training runs?  Do you have any other tips for how to keep them easy?

Calgary Marathon Training

I get lots of questions about my training, so I thought I’d summarize my training over the last few months, and reflect back on what I did, why, and what I might do differently.  I feel like it would be a good exercise in growth for me too, so here goes.

Calgary Marathon 2016 Race Report

I have had a lot of thoughts swirling around in my head regarding Sunday’s race.  I was listening to a podcast last week on Trail Runner Nation with Keira Henninger, it was about Adrenal Fatigue, which thankfully I have not dealt with, but there were a few things that really struck a chord with me.  She said that before her recovery from Adrenal Fatigue, she would always push her body, demand more out of it, that she often wasn’t happy, even after a win. Honestly this is a bit how I felt post-race on Sunday.  I felt like I knew I had more, I could have done better, instead of thinking, WOW, that was a fantastic effort, I’m grateful that my body did THAT.  What the heck?!