Easy does it

I went running last night for the first time in what felt like a very long time (in reality, it had only been about a week). The weather had made a turn (again - really Mother Nature, this IS getting a bit silly) from nasty hot and it-hurts-to-breathe-while-walking-humid to a bit less humid, with a really REALLY nice breeze.

Now that I am aware of the raining, cool weather we will endure today, I totally get it. Last night though, I just really REALLY felt like I needed to take advantage and get.out.there.

I posted an accountability status on my FB profile of

"I.MUST.GET.OUT.RUNNING.TONIGHT"

and got the response I had hoped for. A handful of my runner friends who now knew I hoped to get out there and were guaranteed to follow up if they didn't see the post that shows up automatically via dailymile.com stating I had indeed gone out.

It was not until 8:20p.m that I finally stepped into my trusty runner and headed out for my run of "around 4.5k".

I wasn't as organised as usual, and hadn't looked at any of my maps. I was going blind, in some ways, and having to estimate the distance using one of the routes around my house.

Lucky for me, I remembered mapping out a large square-ish route going down my usual hilly road, but then heading west towards my old neighbourhood before turning back up and running a steady incline for 1.5k and then heading back home. I remembered it being somewhere between 4 and 5k (it ended up being 4.75k).

As usual, it took the first km to shaky the cobwebs off the old muscles, catch my breath, find my pace and then sit back and start enjoying my run. I found the air still heavy and my pace was ajusted accordingly. And when I turned that corner and felt a wonderful breeze blowing over my face, instead of cursing the headwind I would have to deal with while running uphill for the next 1.5k, I smiled and thought of how nice it felt.

And to the nice man who ran by me up that hill while I was on my walk break and gave me a good pace to mimic when I restarted my run, I thank you. You are what kept me going in the right direction and at the right speed halfway up that hill (before you turned around, obviously finished with your run). When you passed me, I thought you were running fast and stong and it made me feel the same when I could match your stride with relative ease.

All in all, the run was nowhere near a "good" time, but it WAS invigorating and I am so very happy to have gotten out that door.

This weekend, I hope to tackle 10k again. I have been offered a chance to run in a night race in the middle of July (go here to check it out) and that will be my first timed official 10k... so I want to get at least 2 more runs in for that distance before that!

Reaching...

This weather is killing me. Okay - that MAY be a bit of an exageration, but it IS killing any roll I was on with my training. Humidity and I have a long standing feud with each other. The heavy air makes it feel like I have a 20 pound weight crazy glued on my chest - making it hard to breath even when I am sedetary. You can imagine, running in this weather is not an option with this gal. So, in the past 2 weeks, I have managed 2 short runs and 1 yoga class and there is no reason why that can't be increased. But between the humidex and the thunderstorms in the forecast for this next week, I am trying to find other ways to reach my beloved endorphin buzz. In addition to the couple of shorter evening (cooler) runs I hope to be able to fit in, I hope to take a trip to our local swimming pool and see how I do with some swimming lengths. It has been a while since I have had the opportunity to swim laps and with all the triathalon talk I have been hearing as of late, I would love to see what I can do! Also, I will continue with my plank challenge (for those who aren't "in the know", this includes a month's worth of planks starting at 20 seconds and increasing up to 4.5 minutes). I'm currently at 2 minutes and almost halfway there! It is a really short daily exercise that makes you feel like you accomplish a lot in a short period of time. Something else I want to try soon: biking to work. It is only around 15 km from my work to my house and I am pretty confident that my legs could get me there... the fact that I also have a shower at my use at work makes this all the more inticing to me. :)

"Momma, I wanna RUN with you!"

My heart melted a little as those words came out of my daughter's mouth while we headed out the door to get to the race earlier than the 2 dads and the kids. To hear my daughter day that makes it all the more worth it. I am successfully teaching my daughter how important, fun and rewarding exercise can be. She WANTS to exercise with me - and it fills my heart with joy. Unfortunately, today's race was not exactly appropriate for her to accompany me. Sarah, Pascale and I were running our first (and not last, I suspect) Colour Run. A child friendly race, yes, but one I wanted to run with my girlfriends. For as much as she says she doesn't enjoy it, Sarah is a great runner with wonderful long legs that make her stride beautifully long and graceful... not to mention fast. I don't get to run with her often because it is very difficult for her to run at my, errr, pace. Pascale began the C25k after hearing I was planning on coming to Montreal to run this race. She decided it sounded fun and that she wanted to try. She too said she didn't like running; but yesterday, she told me she had changed her mind and now actually ENJOYS it. Although there was absolutely NO peer pressure involved, I still think it is pretty great that she feel like she should thank ME for getting her started. Since the race is very much a fun run (you run through colour stations at every kilometer or so and so in addition to running, there is also a lot of walking, skipping and dancing along the race route. It is NOT timed and most everyone involved has smiles on their faces the whole time. Once the race was over, we celebrated by brigning some colour "bombs" to our kids; who were waiting for us at the end of the race route. Then they were able to throw colour at us as well as at the other racers who were just about to complete their races too. AND, Madie got to run with her momma too. As I arrived to their watching spot, she asked again and I was happy to comply. I took her hand and ran about 400 meters with her; and it was great. This is a race I really plan to repeat - hopefully, as a family event. It was SO.MUCH.FUN. I loved just getting out there, running as much as you could (again, lots of "dodging" involved when there are that many people!) and having fun getting all coloured up along the way and not having to worry about time or pace. It really is freeing to not look at that watch when running.