Humid Weather finally breaks and Rest Day

Monday afternoon running with the Xcountry kids was grossly humid. They were dripping and could not believe how wet their clothes were. Im used to that; been grossly sweaty for a couple of years now.  But it really was hot and humid and they felt legs were heavy and dragging and they were way more tired than they should be. And they were; humidity is not a runners' friend.  I myself was better than expected after the long run of the day before; I actually did some of the km trail repeats that I put them through as well as running to the top of the trail and back down for a total of 5 km in about 31:30 minutes of running.  The km loop we did was a very hilly part of the XC trail here and it was not easy but they did not complain too badly.



The falls, not the XC kids and No one jumped during my XC practice ;)



Tuesday was an easy run day so they ran to the waterfalls and back twice; the second time at the falls  a bunch of them went swimming!

On Tuesday the heavy humidity had stopped and a cool (chilly) breeze had picked up, and I really was not hot enough for swimming but apparently they were, so they dipped in, many of them all the way to the tops of their heads!

I left them after they got out of the water and went up into the park for a longer easy run; was interrupted by a pee break at the top of the park ;) but 8 km in about 50:15 minutes was ok.

My knee has been hurting and has actually "spread" to the back of my leg. Im thinking I need more stretching and foam rolling ;)

Wednesday Im taking a rest day. I had a nice walk on the trail at lunch time of about 3.4 km but I am not running today! by choice! YAY! lol  I might get some sleep. I might get some bows done. Might go for a bike ride. But Im not running ;)

Monday And I can't wait to be enjoying some Sun!

I hear it's sunny out. I do not even have a window to test that theory.  I open my door and peek out the window of another office and see that, yes, there is sun in the sky although it appears to also be cloudy (that could be smoke from the building across the way). 

Last Thursday was as I expected; I ran with Taylor and her friend and met up with the team doing an easy run on the trails at different areas. Taylor is trying, it's nice to see. LOL Her friend was easily able to keep up over the 3.2 km we did (24 minutes) while running back and forth letting Taylor catch up. A bit harder of a run for her that day as I was not waiting for her as much. She ran with Holly last night and she enjoyed it because when she ran with the 10 year old, she felt fast. LOL

I didn't feel like I was getting very many miles in last week so on Friday morning after lecture and before lab I headed out to do 10 km. It was a slow 10 K with some very tired legs.  I did as much trail as I could and knee was just barely piping up on the hills but enough.  I was very hot and when i did get back to my office (8.75 km cut short due to time constraints) I actually put on a fan and "dried off". It has been humid!  Holy warm YAY!  53 Minutes for the distance.  I had time to eat and sort of made it to lab on time (the clock over there is way fast).  That lab took the rest of the afternoon.

To combat the massive tiredness I have been going to bed lately WiTH the kids.  I dont always go right to sleep but I am trying to feel more rested. But sleep in the middle of the night can be hard to get; there was the 3:55 am dog barking, 4:30 am train, 4:45 am Scott leaving, 5:30a m howling SOMETHING in the back yard and resultant dog barking, 5:55 am kid talking in sleep and batting me on the side of the head with her cast...yeah sometime during the night she crawled into bed with me.  I see an early night tonight although I plan to paint the shed until dark.  Dark is coming earlier now; it's dark by 8 pm completely and getting hard to see by 730.

Saturday I did not run; we spent the rainy day in the Valley visiting family while Scott and my brother starting building his shed.  Lots of driving.  Few better ways to spend rainy days.

Sunday morning it was not sunny as promised but was not actually raining (94% humidity) so after the kids were off to Drama I went for my long run. I decided rather than thinking long run I would break it into pieces lol running a start on the Irwin Lake road and planning to head back at the end of the trail and finish up about 24 km on the trail which gave me an out if my knee was a "pain".
It took me over 28 minutes to actually feel like running; before that I was just going through the motions.  Once I finally felt like running things got a little questionable; why do things always feel like a good idea when you are running but in retrospect are a little silly? lol
Like my decision to keep going after the trail ended, and go right down into Hilden and back to Truro that way?  the trail ended at only about 4 miles so I wanted to get further before turning back and hitting the Cobequid Trail (yawn).  I underestimated how long it would take to get into Hilden tho; I hit pavement at about 10.5 km but did not get to the crossroads until about 13.75 km.  After heading down a 2 km steep HILL. That was not very much fun; knee issues and a cramping calf kind of ruined the down hill for me.  Back into Truro in about 19 km. NOW I had to get back to Old Barns...how many times have I said I will have to stop running without my phone?  I cannot do math; on the trail I was thinking Old barns in 7 km which is acceptable but that is from Lower Truro not Willow street; SO now I was looking at another 9 km UGH.  I wimped out at 22.5 km at the convenience store to call Scott and see if he could come meet me in another couple of km but a fellow (That I know) at the store offered me a ride and I was all like...Yeah Ive gone far enough LOL So I stretched and then caught a drive back to the start.  My knee?  Acceptable although not as comfortable as last week. I was careful. 
Run done in about 2:22 minutes and a 6:19 Pace. not bad; I could have gone further but chose not to. LOL It is nice to have the choice.  And not overdo things.
I feel a little tired today and a little sore but not terribly. A workout with  the Cross Country team today should work out the kinks.  Will see.
Now going out to see some sun.

She has a CAST now!



Baby Girl with her still-wet cast

After a trip to Halifax and yet another opinion we now have a cast on the child.  I don't disagree wtih any of the opinions of our now 3 different experiences; the first doctor waiting for the swelling to go down and recommending a cast seconded by the IWK; the second doctor's less-invasive approach to use the splint which Annika was doing awesome with; and the IWK NP opinion that, particularly since it was not just the radius that was broken but also the ulna, a cast would provide best immobilization and would protect best.  So now there is a cast in the house and we will see how long the child is happy with it BUT she is still currently thrilled. Also commented on how heavy it is! 

Not a tonne of running going on this week; Tuesday Taylor decided to discontinue her team swimming (OMG I am still having some trouble with this one) and she wants to run with me. We went for a run in the park and she was a trooper while I dragged her up and down and she wants to go again. NO knee pain at all but it was a short, easy run and often the knee pain doesn's flare up until after 4 km.
Wednesday I grabbed a short 6.4 km run before work, knowing the crazy day later would not allow a run. I actually had a really good run; very little comment from the knee. I wonder if this is the improvement I was hoping for, or just a calm after the appointment I had? That is 3 runs now without pain. But I can still occassionally feel the burn even when just walking. 

Wednesday after the trip to the city we had Holly's hockey, then haircuts.  All the girlies in my house got some trimmed hair (Annika chopped off a few inches).

Today is an an easy run with the XC team. I need a few more km but Taylor and her friend are coming so Im not sure I will actually get them in.  It's such a juggling act!

What a week! Holy cow!

Since I last wrote I have:

taken one kid to the city for allergy testing and on the same day spent 3+ hours in the ER (which I hear is a short wait...) with one of the other kids for Xrays and a splint on a broken arm

Worked out with the Xcountry kids 3 times

Taken Xcountry kids to a meet once

had 10,000 meetings at work

had pizza for lunch and dinner one day

Survived 5 single parenting days without a lot of trouble

Gotten the kids to school on time once.

Ran with knee pain

Ran without knee pain

Ran 12 k with no pain; followed shortly by the 10 km Terry Fox Run where I had 2 little girls on bikes for company, also with no pain - 22 km split long run

Watched Holly's first Ice Hockey practice for 2011-2012 season

Met the creatures...er....teachers...at the kid's elementary school

Met with a Massage Therapist/Osteopath who says I am not only a mess but a puzzle and is going to work on putting me together

Attended Rick Hansen's Man in Motion 25 year celebration at the park in town

Gotten very little sleep.

__________________________________________________________________________________

So we have had our first broken bone. SIGH. Annika was jumping from the jungle gym to the monkey bars at her school and forgot about sweaty hands...slipped and fell off, landing on her right hand.  She broken the radius above the wrist. The ER doc splinted it, got us a referral to the IWK, and told us to come back in 2 days for a cast which we did...and the doc that day decided we would not get a cast but would instead manage the break with the solint rather than a cast and sent us on our way. We are still going to take her to the IWK, because we already have the appointment. Should be interesting to see what they do then.

Annika is handling the whole thing really well, with a sense of humour.  And she really doesnt seem to be in much pain; Unless she is overdoing it. But against judgement she is playing on the trampoline and running around the playground; but not playing on the monkey bars ;) I was going to take her on the Terry Fox run  this past weekend on her bicycle; she is doing so well, I forgot that she really cannot ride her bike for 10 km with a broken arm. She stayed with her Nanny.

Xcountry season is in full swing at the high school. Im doing far less hair-pulling this year as Lavinia is back and she is doing a lot of the stuff without my even knowing it!  Im lost most of the time but things are getting done so it's all good.  I do some runs with them and sometimes I just watch and give orders lol. Yesterday I was ready to run with them on some fartleks but just before practice I saw a new MT/Osteopath about my knee; she actually spent loads of time on my back, head, hips, etc. And made all sorts of "ugh" noises and "oh my" comments lol and she is going to work on getting me balanced and all body parts moving and working together, which should take care of loads of the issues I have besides my knee...which is not getting a lot of attention LOL.  She told me NOT to do right out and run as soon as I left her office...so I didn't.  But I am going to have a nice easy run today. 

The Xcountry team had a meet last week which is always very exciting and lets them know where they are in their running and what sort of work they are going to have to do in order to get to where they want to be. 

Scott was away for 5 days for work and it could hardly have been a worse time, with Annika's broken arm and all the extra things taking so much time and effort. And the dogs were real assholes while he was away.  No matter how well Annika is taking her broken arm, there is a lot of things that she cannot do, so everything is taking a little longer.  We had 3 school days and 2 weekend days; by the time Saturday came around I was WAY tired and did nothing but housework, laundry, and gardening. Because all that is nothing. lOL

Sunday I got the kids to Drama/Church, and then while I was waiting for them to be done, I did the first part of my long run; Garmin died on me so I just ran for awhile and turned back; my 10 k run turned into about 12 k in 70 minutes instead and I was late...

which made me and Holly late for the Terry Fox Run in the park; but we made it with little time to spare. Many of the Xcountry kids were there, and although they were way faster, Holly and Angeline (biking) and I did the (actually 9.75 k) in about 63 minutes, including stop lights, cross walks, water breaks, and dodging ignorant pedestrians who apparently had no idea that an organized run was going on. This was very disappointing to me; apparently a lot of the participants of the run left early on their own, rather than starting the run as a group; some went hours before, Im not sure why.  I think that this, combined with the fact that there was little advertising, the roads were not closed, there was a ceremony going on for the Battle of Britain, and the Rick Hansen tour was going on the next day, combined to create very little Terry Fox impact on the town.  It was almost an afterthought. Ah well, some money was raised.

After the run Holly and I got her ready for her first hockey ice time.  She is trying out for the girls PeeWee team and they had a conditioning skate. Holly looked SO SMALL. She is short and age-handicapped lol so she looked extra small. I hope her making the team will not be a problem, she is a great skater and puck-handler.

We were ready for bed after all this so tried for an early bed time but didn't get much sleep. I seriously tried Saturday AND Sunday mornings to sleep in and was awake by 530 both days and unable to go back to sleep. Kept the trend going last 2 mornings as well and gotta say Im getting a little sleepy. It can be hard to keep my attention on something like meetings when Im this sleepy LOL.  I have been sleeping with Annika while Scott has been away and despite me putting a big ol pillow in the middle of the bed she is still getting past and beating me up!

Im looking forward to catching up on some things now that we are a 2 parent home again! And that includes the running that was neglected!

Long Run Semi-Success

Friday afternoon I did hill repeats with the XC team.  I had great runs up although not pushing very hard, already ran that day, being careful of sore legs.  Coming back down the hill was very painful.  I had to walk a few times, limped some, was uncomfortable. CRAP.

Party Friday night. Sat morning was signing up all the kids for all their winter activities.  Taylor is swimming as a senior this year.  Holly is trying out for the local-est PeeWee girls team. And Annika will be playing co-ed atom this year. I hope they all have fun!

Saturday night was a wedding. Brr. It was in a tent and despite wraps and stuff, it was very chilly.  Our table was on the end where the wind was blowing, and although the tent was great and it wasnt tooo windy inside, the wind lifted the tent flaps and the rain came in on us the entire time we were eating. So I was cold and wet. We warmed up later, all was fine.

Sunday afternoon I finally headed out for a run at about supper time. Not hungry, which is always a concern.  The sun was out and temps were perfect.  And I felt nothing from my knee for first 4 km, then just a twinge. It complained a little at about 8 km I had to walk down the big hill on College...but it improved after that and I did not have to walk any more hills. 

17 km done, I think sort of a good run, felt good, 1:48:19 without a lot of effort which is a pretty good pace including a little walking. Not bad for me.

Checking In

Nothing much has changed around here :)
I was right about the weekend; KICK ASS weather and fun to be had!
Ran at noon on Friday with Dara, she showed me some new trails that are going to be AWESOME this winter for snowshoeing. Fun Fun!  LOL  We did 6.4 km, about 42 minutes. :) Was good.  It was super hot.  I love hot.
Then we packed up and headed for Scott's friend's cottage. But not before we ordered free glasses from Clearlycontacts.ca. If you have not, you should check this place out for your glasses needs! I have some pairs; I am wearing my glasses like accessories LOL not like glasses.  Red, Blue/Brown, Brown metal, and now, GREEN! LOL.  Easy since my prescription has not changed significantly in the past 3 years ;)  Even my 8 year old ones are sufficient for around home ie. watching tv. 
Anyway we went off camping and had tents in the friend's back yard at the cottage, which although it's not really roughing it, was still camping. We slept on the ground with no fly on the tent (chance of rain was 0) so we could see the stars. It was awesome.
Saturday morning we got up and had a lazy morning. I mean lazy. Coffee on the deck, breakfast, knitting (working on a sock I have since ripped out 2 more times), and time wasting. Finally we got dressed and went to Five Islands where we met up with friends who were camping. It was chilly there, so no beach walk and no hike (I had worn sandals...didnt know!) and we got super sunburned LOL nice visiting.  After returning to the cottage I put on running clothes and off I went, doing the cottage road loop and then since that wasnt long enough, heading up a smaller loop within, ending with 32:30 minutes and no idea how far.  WAIT. It is totally on the map for MAPMYRUN! Gonna map it. ok I thought about 4.5 but its more like 5.7 km that I covered. Go me! LOL  It was very flat and actually bothered my knee a lot. 
After I ran I met up with kids and men down the shore where the kids were bass fishing. They have never done anything like that before and they loved it. They caught nothing but thought it was awesome.

Campfire that night after an amazing meal and then sleep listening to the crashing waves and waking to the same noise was awesome. The 5 am crows were not so awesome. The weather the entire weekend was amazing tho so early mornings were easier to deal with LOL.
We had coffee and an awesome breakfast, before and during packing up and heading home to shower and head back OUT to the Valley to see my boys!  OK they are not my boys but as close as I am ever going to get.  They were lovely!

Home again and off to a good night's sleep!
Monday was Labour Day and somehow I feel Like I am forgetting what we did. Oh we had some company for a bit, I finished putting sealer on the back deck floor (have rails left) and we had the neighborhood BBQ which was actually a lot of fun!  Our neighbors are quite nice :) there was food galore and swimming and games and water balloons. I think grown ups had as much fun as kids. I had a test run that morning (later than I would have liked....very humid) and tried for 10 km, thinking I might go more later if time permitted but knowing I simply had to get that deck finished. I thought if my knee stood 10 km I would be ok.
What did end up happening was a couple of things. I finished 10.4 km in just over 1:06 which is acceptable, but in order to not have a very sore knee I had to do one of two things; I either ran down hills with a silly hitch in my stride where I dropped one hip rather a lot and then it didnt hurt. This is obviously not a long term solution.  OR I ran down the hill with a long stride, like a bat outta hell, which caused no discomfort at all. LOL weird.  Good Run. Did not go out later. Deck, company, BBQ, you name it.

Tuesday was the first day of school.  The kids were excited and we were not TOO late. They had a great day!  I had Orientations and meetings to fill my day before I picked up kids and carted them around. I was busy with the kids and housework until late that night and Scott went to a 4H meeting so no run.

Wednesday was first day of classes for my students and was a very busy day.  After school there was a cross country running team meeting and easy run to the park.  Distance was only about 4 km but it was relaxing and fun; in the middle we did some core/push ups and started some stretching. Good times.

Thursday was another easy run at the park with the team although I have to say, I ran with the kids who consider themselves "intermediate performers" and we not only went further but really pushed the run right to the end and had a wonderful time! :) 5.25 km in 30 minutes is AWESOME on the hills of VP. Good run!

Friday so far has seen a run with Dara around the trails of Bible Hill and another great run although there was enough discomfort from my knee that I actually walked down the last big hill as nothing else worked. UGH.  Shortly Im heading out to meet the team again, and will get a few more km in. We did 6.4 in 40 minutes which makes me pretty happy.  Good times.

Wishing for a nice relaxing weekend that is not going to happen.  There are numerous obligations calling my name this weekend.  I am looking forward to every one. 

Plans Messed up and WTF is with my knee?

It's been another one of those weeks! Im starting to seriously doubt whether or not I can get these kids out of the house on time if I cannot even get myself out on time! It is taking me a really long time to get ready for work and Ive not gotten there when I wanted to yet! It's only going to get worse when there are 3 more really slow people to move as well :(:(:(

This has been quite a week!  :) I've kind of decided to make the posts more efficient Im not going to write every single day to mention a little workout although this idea of keeping a log was to keep track daily; and by the time a week is gone I have forgotten what happened anyway!  Will see.

Last Thursday I did not manage a swim at the pool; I think I just sat there. TIRED.  LOL  But Friday I did take advantage of the very last lane swim of the summer and did some laps. Not so many, I get chatting or watching the kids swimming lessons...Taylor was giving me some tips on my swimming which apparently is something she can laugh at, nice.  She says in a very patronizing voide...try lifting more with your chest and less with your head. huh?  I had a run that day as well although I dont remember where I went and what it was like; 6.5 km in 40:25. 

Saturday I suppose was a "rest" day; we had some spare kids and got a lot of house work and yard work done;  we went to the pool in the afternoon since it was very hot and likely the last swim we were going to get in before the pool closed for the year.  :( sad!   Scott was away all day and evening so we just relaxed and had a bonfire. 



Before the walk



Sunday was supposed to be my 20 mile run; first of this training cycle.  I didnt make it.  I did do the Cobequid Trail 5 km walk with a friend staging a come back from a spinal cord insult; it was fun and we took photos and chatted for 1:15 while walking 5 km at a good pace, 15 minutes per km.  Im really glad I could do this with her.  Hilarious at the start where there was no nerves to affect us, we were chatting and taking in other runners; saw this lady I SWEAR didnt her friends look at her?  Everyone needs a friend who will tell them that although they are fit and look great in their little



watching the pack vanish

  sports bra, those shorts are totally see through and that is QUITE the black thong you are wearing. OH my.


5km turnaround



Cashen Family

 It was a little weird at the start, as we were just a couple of walkers in a running race, to watch the runners leave us in their dust and disappear.  It was only about 10 minutes or so before we saw the 5 k runners coming back; we were not alone for long.  At the start to the trail I saw a rather bejewelled Ipod laying on the ground so I picked it up; it looked like a child's Ipod (sparkles) and it was playing the Rankins.  LOL I walked holding this stupid Ipod out to the side so that on the out and back course the runners coming towards us would not miss it (Sparkles) and I carried on this way past the 5 K turnaround and then I changed hands and held it so that the runners catching up to us would see it. Awkward right? No big deal but kind of awkward. Anyway just before about the 4 km mark, I hear behind me "that's my Ipod That's my Ipod" and before I can even turn my head to look at the voice this "woman" grabs the Ipod out of my hand and keeps running.  Wow.  I didnt expect her to stop her run and Gush all over the trail but a thanks might have been nice? Or acknowledgement?  Sheesh.  Did she think I was trying to steal it, and holding it out to the side was my way of sneaking off with it?  Christ, next time I see an ugly Bedazzled Ipod laying in the rocks in the rain, I will just leave it there.  BEEATCH.

After the walk there were prizes and really great food. I was SO Hungry! LOL.  I ate, it was breakfast type stuff and I really wanted it! LOL  I looked at the running times when I got home, and I should not have; If I had run a really super mediocre 5 k run, not my best, I would have gotten second in my age group. I have never placed in any run before in anyway way (unless you could the beer mile and I dont LOL),  and I didnt even have to have run well to place this day :( Try not to think about it since I had a lot more fun on our walk!



ready to go!



Sunday after lunch time we watched the winds pick up from the outer waves of Irene and the rain came in waves as well....sudden downpours and then nothing....right through the night.  So no long run was to be had. I took the chance to, after doing some yard prep, totally crash and we watched movies and stuff for the rest of the afternoon.  that was nice.

Monday night, after not having run for 2 days, I felt I had to get out for a quick run so I did a rushed 5.25 km up and back down the hill before Holly's soccer game right at supper time. Sheesh rush! It was also a long day at work and it was plenty warm. LOVE WARM.  32:41 for the 5.25 k. 

Tuesday was a run with Dara. We found a new fun trail from BH Rec to Osprey and will be using that more often :) It was definitely "trail" in so much more the sense than the Cobequid Trail or even the VP trails. It was awesome.  5.25 km in about 34 minutes (some trail issues hehe) and then I did a few more to complete 8.5 km in 54 minutes.  It was just about 5 km that I felt a funny feeling in my left knee...like a stabbing particularly when the grade was slightly downhill.  :( No big deal, I figured it was the pace and it would disappear when I did a couple more km at a faster pace. It did not.  I foamrolled and rested and stretched at home and hoped for the best.

Wednesday I ran from the college after work to avoid some of the hills; I went on CT to BHRec and then took our new trail up to the middle of the hill before continueing on the 5 km run course back to the college.  At about 3 km I felt a yucky feeling in my knee but not as bad as the day before so I thought that was pretty good :):)  Lots of stretching and more foam roller :):) 6.4 km in 41:17.  It was super hot. Another Soccer Game for Holly; last one for the year, it was their playoff finals and they lost their game but got Silver medals and did very well in the game. Circumstances as they were, this was the best outcome possible!

Thursday morning was the trail run at they park with the Xcountry team and holy 7 of them came out!  As well Lavinia was there and the weather was cool and it was quite nice. We ran up to the water resevoir which was SO pretty we stopped to stretch and look at the scenery for a moment, fog was lifting and sun was shining and it was quite nice. 5.25 km in about 37:48.  It was about 3.5 km in that I started noticing my knee was stabbing on little downhill grades and it would come and go.  Felt cold and would just give out; I was reduced to walking twice!  :( Then the pain would just be completely gone, then return for no reason.  NOT FUN :(  So Im not exactly sure what to do about this little hitch in my marathon plan.  I have made an apopintment to see someone and need a quicker appointment to see someone else but I have no idea what to quite do about this. I detect no change in my stride, no injury or fall, no reason for this except for something Ive no idea LOL. 

Spent the rest of Thursday walking a lot which doesnt hurt a bit ;)  this weekend we are going to camp with friends one night and visit with the newest Nephew and his older brother (oh and their parents) for a night, and rest as it's the nice long weekend and weather should be kick ass. :):):) Lets hope!  Not sure what to do for long run this week :(

Big Finish!!!!