It's cold outside, there's no kind of atmosphere. I'm all alone, more or less...

So many I'm not in space (today's thread title is brought to you courtesy of the old British tv sci-fi comedy "Red Dwarf"), but it certainly is cold in Toronto tonight.

My handy dandy firefox browser weather application has the temperature hovering around 7 degrees celcius (44 fahrenheit) with brisk 19 km/hr (12 miles per hour) winds. That means a windchill of 3 degrees c (12 f).

Yikes. And to imagine it's only going to get worse. As a lifelong Canadian (and not even a wussy Torontonian - a native Montrealer!), I shouldn't be surprised that winter comes along every year without fail. Or that it is cold. And yet... I kind of keep wishing that each year the meteorological Gods forget to change from early-fall temps to unfathomable below freezing ones.
Despite this, I bravely donned my shoes, sweat-wicking pants (that GOD I opted for the pants versus the shorts in May) and Vision TV t-shirt which OA got for free from a work colleague (she promptly handed it over to me to use for my runs).

Yes a t-shirt tonight. I still can't feel my arms completely.

It wasn't all sooooo bad tonight with the cold - although I came in under my "dream goal" of 2 miles again tonight by over 0.75 miles. My legs were feeling awfully leaden and my breathing was only so-so. The wind came whipping off of St. Clair and I kept dreading having to turn into it each lap.

So yes, I am slightly disappointed. But for my first two-nights in a row run in ages... not so bad.

A major fun goal this weekend is going to be picking up a long-sleeved workout top (the Vision TV shirt is going into the closet and probably won't be coming out until April).

Oh and I'm also going to start calculating the approximate length of my workouts in minutes (including a quick 0.25 mile walking warm-up to the track which I don't count in my overall mile goals). The first person to mock me for my BLISTERING 30 minute mile pace will get a virtual smack over the head. :)

I'm off to defrost in a nice warm shower!

DAY 40 REPORT

start time: 8:10 pm
Total Distance: 2 miles
Total Time Including Warm-Up: 40 minutes

Total Ran (approx): 1.25 miles
Total Walked (approx): 0.75 mile

Legs - heavy feeling
Feet - fine
Lungs - uneven
Stomach - good
Sweat level - low

Everyday a little run...

Thank you everyone who has been giving me such kind words of encouragement over the last few days. I must admit, I've been a little down of late, but things appear to be on the up and up now.

First, I got called for an interview for a random dream job in major gift fundraising for a very interesting organization today! I applied ages ago and had kind of given up on the whole shebang, so that was a nice surprise. Send me good vibes for Monday at 12:30!

Second, as many of you know, I have been upping my running mileage dramatically in recent days in an attempt to stay more or less on target of my goal from earlier this summer. Tonight, I had 2 miles of running planned... and I made it without too too too much difficulty.

I was breathing nicely, the temperature was a brisk 10 degrees and there was not a single other person out on the track. Yea!


DAY 39 REPORT

start time: 9:20 pm (too late really... I'm having difficulty keeping my eyes open now)
Total Distance: 3.125 miles

Total Ran (approx): 2 miles
Total Walked (approx): 1.125 miles

Legs - good
Feet - right foot numbness around 1.25 miles of running. It went away after I stopped for a moment and shook out my leg.
Lungs - good
Stomach - fine
Sweat level - low... it was ffffffffreezing!

Further Stubborness

Helen, thanks so much for your comment on my post from last night - your feedback is really great.

I know I am being hard on myself with this goal, but I think I am still able to reach it if I follow my plan.

Not having a driver's license, I have always been a walker. I can walk for miles and miles without any difficulty (other than the occasional sore feet!) I have never been able to run... even at very slow speeds. When I started this program back in May I wanted to move away from just walking to exercise that would feel more... substantial.

My real goal has been to simply be able to run. Not super far, definitely not very fast... but just to be able to do it for once without wanting to curl up in the foetal position and die.

That is why I haven't been counting my walk breaks in my overall goal of 100 and then 72 miles of running by my birthday.

If I were to count walk breaks, my total distance travelled since May would be:

drumroll please

56.21 miles

... when you consider that of that amount, 62% was run versus only 38% walked, I am on the right track.

At this point, I want to keep to my goal of running 72 miles by my birthday (or... thereabouts) after which I will reevaluate to look at how I am measuring my progress. Is it abirtrary? Yes. Do I still think I can do it? Definitely with hard work.

I'm not going to kill myself attempting the goal. If I don't make 72 miles by November 3, so be it. But after so many months of looking to that date (which is now oh so close), I can't give up now when I've still a fighting chance.

And if I break 72 on November 4, 5 or even 15 - it will still be an accomplishment.

Yesterday, I was looking over some former posts from back in June when I was flabbergasted that OA's old street running route was 1.8 miles. I thought I would never be able to get to the point where I could run that far. Tuesday's run was 1.75 miles and tonight I am scheduled for my first attempt at 2 miles.

Progress is there, no matter whether I make 72 on 11/3 or not.

Death at the doorstep

Thank you to Bev and Dave for your comments for my rather sullen post this morning.

I have recalibrated my remaining training plan and, if all goes well, I may realistically be able to achieve it.

It looks like this (the numbers on the right represent how many miles I should run that night):

09-Oct-07	Tue	1.75
10-Oct-07	Wed
11-Oct-07	Thu	2.00
12-Oct-07	Fri	2.00
13-Oct-07	Sat
14-Oct-07	Sun	2.25
15-Oct-07	Mon
16-Oct-07	Tue	2.25
17-Oct-07	Wed
18-Oct-07	Thu	2.50
19-Oct-07	Fri	2.50
20-Oct-07	Sat
21-Oct-07	Sun	2.75
22-Oct-07	Mon
23-Oct-07	Tue	2.75
24-Oct-07	Wed
25-Oct-07	Thu	3.00
26-Oct-07	Fri	3.00
27-Oct-07	Sat
28-Oct-07	Sun	3.25
29-Oct-07	Mon
30-Oct-07	Tue	3.25
31-Oct-07	Wed
01-Nov-07	Thu	3.50
02-Nov-07	Fri	3.50
03-Nov-07	Sat

If I follow this schedule to the letter, I will have run a grand total of 74.46 miles by November 3, which allows me a teeny bit of leniancy here and there.

Oh, and while I am a confirmed run/walker, I am not counting the miles I walk in my workouts as part of the mileage. This is my running tally and if I allowed myself to start counting walk breaks, I would not be able to push myself to go that extra running lap or whatnot.

As for tonight's actual run. 1.75 miles. Another longest distance ever. Woot.







I felt like I was going to die.

Don't laugh.

I'm serious. Death was there at doorstep calling me home to him.

Somehow I managed to shake off Beezelbub, because I'm at home now typing. It was a close call.

I have a feeling he will be back on Thursday when I have, suicidally, decided to schedule my first 2 mile run. Yikes.

DAY 38 REPORT

start time: 8 pm
Total Distance: 2.75 miles

Total Ran (approx): 1.75 miles
Total Walked (approx): 1 mile

Legs - pretty good
Feet - another numb right foot
Lungs - below-average
Stomach - twingey in places
Sweat level - high

The Bell Has Probably Tolled...

Last week's blerghyness (real word, that) may have been the final coffin in my plan to achieve my already re-worked goal of running 72 miles by November 3 (my 24th birthday).

As of this writing, I have managed to run only 33 miles - less than half of my goal. If I really stretch I can possibly run 4 times a week. There are four weeks left before my birthday.

I have never run more than 1.5 miles at a time. Weak, I know... but increased distance appears to come very very slowly to me.

So... if I average 1.75 miles (longshot) x 4 times a week (also a longshot) x 4 weeks remaining... I will have run an additional 28 miles and will fall 11 miles short of my intended target.

At the very least.

Plus, with sleet and snow always a possibility in Toronto in November (despite yesterday's 30+ degree scorcher of a Thanksgiving day) making long term goals now may result in weather-related disappointment.

SOOOOOO... what do I do now?

Welcome Back Me!

A great weekend in Montreal has now been nicely capped off by a great run tonight at my track. It is, by the way, officially "my" track. Tell that to the school who technically owns it!

I was joined in my endeavour by only one other runner (and he really was doing more walking than even *I* was... which is saying something) - not a dog or a soccer team in sight.

With the skies clear and temperatures around 16 degrees celcius, I knew that tonight could be the night I finally managed to run a half mile without stopping (i.e. 2 consecutive laps) AND go a full 1.5 miles total distance run.





Guess what? I did both! Huzzah!

Tomorrow I have another 1.5 miles planned which will be followed by ANOTHER weekend in Montreal with my family for Thanksgiving.

Turkey! Double Huzzah!

DAY 37 REPORT

start time: 8:15 pm
Total Distance: 2.2 miles

Total Ran (approx): 1.5 miles (yea!)
Total Walked (approx): 0.7 mile

Legs - pretty good
Feet - right foot went completely numb about 3/4s of the way through
Lungs - average
Stomach - fine
Sweat level - medium-high

Off to Montreal until Tuesday

... and there will be no running no jogging no anything other than work and stuffing myself with actual to goodness REAL bread, pastries and other assorted carbs that are at their best only in my home town (and possibly Paris... who knows?)

I may also partake of Quebec's national dish:



Have a great weekend everyone!

A pox on all yer soccer balls and cleats...

It turns out that my beloved high school running track has one disadvantage.

And its a biggie. Enter the boys' soccer team, stage right.

Grr.

Now, running with other people present at the track is not a huge issue for me anymore. I don't mind the occasional dog walker, family with toddlers or fellow jog/walker encroaching on my territory.

An entire team of athletic high school aged boys watching me trot around while they finished practicing the world's most idiotic sport? That's a whooooole other matter.

So I had to improvise another street route.

Improvisation, is not one of my strongest skills as you tell from the meagre amount I travelled (I *did* think I was running/walking further than I did... if that counts for anything).

DAY 36 REPORT

start time: 7:15 pm
Total Distance: 1.2 miles

Total Ran (approx): 0.8 mile (yikes yikes yikes!)
Total Walked (approx): 0.4 mile (yikes yikes yikes!)

Legs - way better than Monday
Feet - sore
Lungs - average
Stomach - fine
Sweat level - high

Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow

So I know I'm pushing this whole definition of "running" and my being a "runner". There are a ton of people reading this who are regularly running 5, 10, 15 even 20 miles in a single outing. Meanwhile I'm here babbling on about my silly mile and a quarter or less distances.

With that disclaimer, I still need to be able to say the following.

Tonight = ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow

It's been a while since I jogged twice in two nights. After the last two great sessions, I knew I was living on borrowed time.

As I write this my legs are still in extreme pain and I am resorting to tylenol.

DAY 35 REPORT

start time: 8 pm
Total Distance: 1.6 miles

Total Ran (approx): 1.1 miles
Total Walked (approx): 0.5 mile

Legs - really reall really bad
Feet - fine
Lungs - wheezy
Stomach - fine
Sweat level - enormous

I think I'm on to Something Here...

Another Sunday night, another great jogging session at the track.

How did I get by for so long on the mean streets without the red gravel dust on my shoes, the playful dogs on the infield, the lack of shin pain in my... er... shins?

I've no idea.

I probably could have kept going for longer tonight than the simple 1.25 miles I ran/walked, but tomorrow I have another session planned and I didn't want to go crazy tonight and compromise Monday.

DAY 35 REPORT

start time: 7:30 pm
Total Distance: 1.9 miles

Total Ran (approx): 1.25 miles
Total Walked (approx): 0.65 mile

Legs - good
Feet - fine
Lungs - not as "clear" as on Wednesday, but relatively good
Stomach - fine
Sweat level - medium

In Goes the Good Air.... Out Goes the Bad Air

Tonight was one of those nights where things just seemed easier than normal. The absolute best kind of jogging session!

I tried paying very close attention to my breathing - doing the breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth technique I read about online. It seemed to help, I wasn't gasping for breath like I normally do.

I have two work events I must go tomorrow and Friday night until late, so running will be out of the question. OA and the girls are away this weekend, so I think I may make Saturday my next scheduled jog.

DAY 34 REPORT

start time: 8:15 pm
Total Distance: 1.5 miles

Total Ran (approx): 1.1 miles
Total Walked (approx): 0.4 mile

Legs - very sore
Feet - fine
Lungs - surprisingly good
Stomach - fine
Sweat level - medium

Amorous Dogs and Mini-Drill Sergeants

It was an absolutely, drop dead gorgeous evening - high teens, clear skies, light breeze. The whole she-bang.

There had to be at least six people on the track tonight, with a further dozen or so dogs and their owners milling about in the infield.

One particular male golden retriever kept me entertained with his less than graceful attempts to... er... make friends with some of the lady dogs present. Let's just say there was one very embarrassed dog owner who kept having to intervene...

Also of interest tonight was a mum running with her two children - one of who looked to be about six who ran beside her and another 1 or 2 year old who sat in his jogging stroller the entire time yelling "faster mummy, faster!" If only we all had a drill sergeant like that on our team!

DAY 33 REPORT

start time: 7:15 pm
Total Distance: 1.7 miles

Total Ran (approx): 1.1 miles
Total Walked (approx): 0.6 mile

Legs - only sore at the end
Feet - fine
Lungs - bad, but better than yesterday
Stomach - fine
Sweat level - medium

Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered

I just finished watching the movie version of the Tony Award winning play "The History Boys"
for the third time this week with OA. It brought back a ton of great memories from the summer of 2006 when I saw the same incredible actors from the movie with my friend Andrea5000. We took advantage of free accommodations through her paid-for dorm room at Columbia (where she was pursuing her Masters' degree) and bought tickets to every play and musical we could possibly get into over a five day period.

It remains my best vacation ever. And a lot of it had to do the unbelieveable artistry of Alan Bennett, the playwright as well as the director and performers of the History Boys...

For a show filled with great lines, this is perhaps the best. Warning - language!

Oh an this is also a great scene (and well sung!)

Oh but this is a running blog isn't it?











Okay... running.

I went out tonight for a very mediocre session on the track. So mediocre that there is very very very little to talk about.

Blergh.

DAY 32 REPORT

start time: 7:00 pm
Total Distance: 1.5 miles (woot! the 2 mile total distance mark finally broken!)

Total Ran (approx): 11 mile
Total Walked (approx): 0.5 mile

Legs - sore
Feet - fine
Lungs - really bad
Stomach - stitchy
Sweat level - medium

1.3 mile cha-cha

Unless my records are incorrect, tonight marks my longest run yet (puny as that may be to everyone who reads this blog).

And so... the 1.3 mile cha-cha:

*jog jog cha cha cha wheeze wheeze cha cha cha ow ow wheeze cough jazz hands collapse*

Lots of people at the track again tonight. One particularly annoying guy decided to run clockwise versus the rest of us counter-clockwisers. I may have a new pet peeve. Stupid clockwise guy.

DAY 31 REPORT

start time: 8:15 pm
Total Distance: 2.15 miles (woot! the 2 mile total distance mark finally broken!)

Total Ran (approx): 1.3 mile
Total Walked (approx): 0.85 mile

Legs - ow
Feet - fine
Lungs - about ready to collapse entirely
Stomach - stitchy in the middle
Sweat level - enormous

Welcome Back Track!

I have been very bad about updating this blog over the last week - unfortunately, there has not been any running to report on until this evening's work.

I had a Wednesday and Friday night jog planned.

Excuses drumroll please:

1) I forgot the fact that I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for Wednesday night (at 8pm... what doctor takes appointments that late other than mine?) so I couldn't run then. I did walk home along my normal street route which should have something in the positive column.

2) Thursday was then going to be the make-up jog night, but it ended up being the grossest, hottest and humidest day in the last month. Not happening.

3) Friday night then was also humid, but had high winds and lots of rain to boot. I left my house, being the trooper that I am, only to have a giant tree branch crash down from my neighbour's front yard and land directly on the sidewalk I would shortly have been on. Not happening x a million.

4) YESTERDAY night could have been a double make-up jog night, but I had friends coming in from out of town and had to stay home drinking margaritas with them. I HAD to. They would have tied me to the deck chair if I had resisted (which, being a good friend, of course I didn't)

Which brings me and my excuses to tonight.

The local high school track where OA and I started our jogging work back in May is finally open again to the public.

Hip Hip Huzzah!

I took my lazy bum-self over there at around 8pm after watching a lovely lovely lovely men's US Open Championship match. Novak Djokovic is my new Serbian pretend boyfriend after this post-quarter final impersonation series. Very funny stuff.

The run itself was pretty good. My doctor prescribed me a low dosage asthma controlling steroid which I have been taking regularly the last few days. I'm not sure if my improvement tonight was as a result of the meds or the flatter, more absorbent track surface.

Regardless, it was very nice to be back out a running (and the track was incredibly popular given that it was a Sunday evening - two walkers, a dog, a fellow jogger and some people doing tai-chi!)

DAY 30 REPORT (milestone alert - milestone alert!)

start time: 8:00 pm
Total Distance: 1.6 miles

Total Ran (approx): 1 mile
Total Walked (approx): 0.6 mile

Legs - tight here and there
Feet - fine
Lungs - good
Stomach - stitchy
Sweat level - high

Woot!

Tonight's mini-run absolutely ROCKED!

True it was small - I tried out my teeny tiny 1 mile course again - but it managed to challenge me while not challenging me tooooooooo much. The perfect combo!

The temperature was a perfect 22 degrees celcius with low humidity and a nice solid warm breeze.

I have also changed my goal to mark the entire month I lost to the gallbladder removal. Instead of targetting running 100 miles by my 24th birthday on November 3, my new goal will be to run a cumulative 72 miles (or 24 - my soon to be new age - multiplied times 3).

DAY 29 REPORT

start time: 8:15 pm
1 mile

Total Ran (approx): 0.75 mile
Total Walked (approx): 0.25 mile

Legs - fine
Feet - fine
Lungs - asthma-tastic
Stomach - fine
Sweat level - low

Back on the Road Again...

I know I promised I would be back out on the road on Wednesday night. Unfortunately, at 9:30pm on Wednesday, it was still a horrific 32 degrees celcius outside. There was no way I was going to start my first mini-run in a month in that sort of hellish temperature.

So I postponed to yesterday which luckily was much much cooler.

The plan was to run a full mile along the same teeny tiny beginner's course I started out on back in early July.

I figured, at the very least, I could do three-quarters of it running with some appropriately teeny tiny walk breaks here and there.

I did not count on complications from ragweed - the cursed plant of late summer. My head was pounding all evening no matter how much water I consumed (normally, the best way to get rid of my headaches). A quick look at the pollen report for Toronto showed a nasty high reading for ragweed which confirmed that I am now going to be embarking on my annual two-three weeks of cursing mother nature.

Another result of the ragweed headache (and the water I drank all evening), was that my stomach was a little off for most of the quick jog and that, for the first time, I felt really and truly nauseous while exercising. Not a nice feeling.

OA, OAelder and OAjunior come home on Sunday from their three week vacation out west. Then things will get back on a normal schedule.

I'm hoping for the next two weeks to run three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays... distance will be determined largely by how soon I can complete my mini-course in the same way I could pre-gallbladder removal.

DAY 28 REPORT

start time: 8:15 pm
1 mile

Total Ran (approx): 0.5 mile (don't mock me... it was my first time out in a month... and my head hurt!)
Total Walked (approx): 0.5 mile

Legs - fine
Feet - fine
Lungs - my throat hurt and I wheezed like I have never wheezed before
Stomach - painful and included some nausea
Sweat level - low to medium

Recovery and Recovery and Recovery...

It's been a while since my last post, but I thought I would fill you all in on my recovery from gallbladder removal surgery.

Saturday night was the two weeks post-op mark and, quite frankly, I'm feeling pretty darn good. No pain except for the very rare twinge when I stretch out my right abdomen while raising my right arm above my head. Excellent.

So... really I should be getting back on the jogging routine shortly. I'm half looking forward to returning to my routine and feeling better, yet I'm also partially concerned about the inevitable decline in my skills these three weeks off will have resulted in.

Also - my slightly OCD mum keeps phoning me from Montreal and insists I "not rush into things" which is giving me a bit of pause. Damn mothers are even good at adding to your own doubt from afar.

So here is the new plan of action. I go home to Montreal on Saturday, the 25th and will return on Tuesday the 28th. Wednesday the 29th is a vacation day. I will start my running program anew that night.

Huzzah. Hoo and Ray.

In the meantime, the birthday 100 mile goal will need to be look at and recalibrated. A month off is definitely going to affect the mileage... I will almost certainly bring it down to the 70-80 mile mark.

Thank you well wishers

So today marks my return to blogging 10 days after having my very unhappy gallbladder removed.

Unfortunately, despite this being my running blog, there has been no running to report. What there if to report is anywhere from 8 to 12 hours/day of watching tennis' Rogers Cup (aka the Canadian Open) since last Monday. On the same television. Perched on the same couch. Drinking the same ginger tea. This is the first time I can actually say I have watched an entire tennis tournament. Every single match. It is quite the couch potato feat - even for an expert like myself.

It was surprisingly exhausting yet the perfect way to recover from surgery.

Now for all of you who want to hear the nitty gritty story of my week of July 30-August 4... here goes.

It all begins back on Thursday, July 27 when I ate a burger. A simple yummy fatty as all get out burger from a neighbourhood bistro.

Indigestion followed. And continued. And continued.

I would wake up each morning feeling fine. Then I would eat... anything... and be doubled over for at least 4 hours at a time.

This went on until Tuesday when at work a colleague said she suspected I might have a gallstone problem and told me to go see a doctor. This was after having eaten two bites of veggie sandwich and being in pain.

Knowing that I needed to get on a plane on Wednesday for Edmonton, and being without a family physician, I figured the easiest thing would be to go to a walk-in clinic to ensure that I wasn't dying.

The first walk-in clinic google maps pointed me towards was a naturopath's office. No thank you.

The second was closed for the entirety of the month of August. Crap.

By this time, I had convinced myself that all this pain was in my head and that it would eventually go away if I fasted for a bit and took things more easily. A hot water bottle helped enormously on Tuesday evening. Especially coupled with the fact that I hadn't eaten anything since the two bites of sandwich earlier that day.

Wednesday, I got to Edmonton fine. Again, I ate nothing.

By Thursday morning, I was starving so I bought some rice cakes and apple juice to sip on. This was followed by agonizing pain.

By 5pm that evening, I knew I would not be able to make it until Sunday (my anticipated return flight) and was obsessed with getting out of Edmonton and home. So I booked a very expensive flight to Toronto which left Edmonton at 1am mountain time and arrived in Toronto at 6:45 in the morning.

From arriving at the airport at 10:30pm to touch-down in Toronto I was literally counting the elapsed time in quarters of hours. It was what I imagine a marathon to feel like.

By the time I arrived home and collapsed on my living room couch, OA was primed and ready to get me to her preferred emergency centre at Womens College Hospital downtown.

I was immediately admitted (accolades for the wonderful people at WCH please!) and shot up with enough painkillers to down a horse.

6 hours and an ultrasound later, my gallstones were confirmed (one big one "bouncing around" inside the gallbladder and another smaller one stuck in the bile duct causing pressure to build up and my enormous pain). I was transferred to Sunnybrook Hospital and on Saturday night had the offending gallbladder removed laprascopically.

The surgery itself was extremely cool - three tiny little mosquito-bite sized incision on my abdomen and a larger one just above my bellybutton. None of my doctors were McGill grads (darn - I couldn't get a single donation to the Alma Mater Fund and claim I was working!) but they managed to do an adequate job considering their lowly education :)

I returned home on Monday.

My parents left Montreal at 4am (!!!) on Saturday morning and didn't leave Toronto until Wednesday. My mother literally BLEACHED my room clean. I don't think she approved of my housekeeping skills.

So that was my week and am feeling great. I'm back at work today and am hoping to be able to start running again in two weeks or so.

Thank you everyone for the good vibes you sent me - they appear to have worked. :)

Gallbladder Out, Percoset In

So surgery on Saturday night for to remove my gallbladder.

Returned home this morning. Painkillers are my new best friend.

My 100 mile plan is in serious jeopardy.

Send good vibes my way.