Running – Page 4 – The Daily EO

The Daily EO: June 8th, 2012

Late one night I was driving home from a 12 hour shift from work to my house in Midland. I was tired, but my pockets heavy with tips. My trip was about 20 minutes and required me to travel on Highway 400 and Highway 12. Highway 400 runs from Toronto to Parry Sound and has 4 lanes with exits with huge overpasses, etc. Highway 12 is smaller with only 2 lanes and if you want off, you just turn. I started our on Highway 400 at my usual 110 km/hour.

Shortly after departure, the car started making a weird noise – kind of like a grocery cart with a wonky wheel. I slowed a bit, but other than the noise, all seemed okay.

I hate to contribute to the cliché of females being car ignorant, but unfortunately I must admit I am not particularly car knowledgable. I own a 2007 Honda Fit with standard transmission – good on gas and fun to drive. I am a pretty good driver, I like to drive and I like to drive fast. Emile taught me the four strokes (intake, compression, um .. . power, and exhaust) against my protests. I know enough – keep it filled with gas, oil and wiper fluid; how to change a tire (thanks mom and Emile) and that when it starts making weird noises, listen.

I pulled over to the side of the road to examine the tires. All four were fully inflated, no sticks in the wheel well, nothing looking out of the ordinary. Hmmm. Well, carry on then. I called Emile to get him to listen to the noise over the cell phone. Shockingly, he could not identify it. He told me to come on home, but to drive a little more slowly. By then I was on Highway 12, so I slowed and counted the minutes until I would get home.

Well, I should have pulled over. I should have listened to my gut. Because soon after the call, my front driver’s side wheel came off, leaving me to drive my car with only 3 wheels. I am pretty proud of how well I drove that night to get the vehicle back under control and quickly to the side of the road. Nobody was hurt, people stopped to help me and we even were able to find the seemingly perfect wheel in the tall grass.

You all know the rest of the story: call home, call a tow truck, insurance claim, lengthy repairs, police investigation (as there was no physical reason that could be found as to why my wheel come off, they suspected mischief), etc. I am thankful I had come of Highway 400, I had slowed down and that the wheel didn’t cause any injury to any other vehicle on the road.

Today I went for a run. I tend to take my car to drive to a starting point because our street has lots of speedy traffic and limited shoulders. I parked, hid my keys and headed out. 2 km out, 2 km back (record pace again!). As I rounded the last bend, I noticed I’d left my lights on. No matter, I can now run 4 km in 23 minutes. Surely my battery can handle that. No, apparently not. I was a 3 minute walk from home, but what a pain. Sigh.

I called Emile to confirm it was the battery (not the alternator, starter, etc) based on the noises when I turned the key (the guy really needs to get better at cell phone diagnosis). He told me to turn everything off and let the battery rest. Let the battery rest? What kind of stupid advice is that? Seriously man – the battery is just going to spontaneously re-energize? Well, I guess I’ll call a friend for a boost. Thanks a lot. Honestly, like I’ll just sit here for 3 minutes and then miraculously turn the key and the car will start. . . Oh. Well. . . look at that.

June 8th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: Batteries apparently need rest. Emile’s advice is pretty sound.

The Daily EO: June 6th, 2012

Do you remember those diamond commercials by De Beers? The ones with the shadow people and that music? You the ones – you’d find tears on your face and hate yourself for being sucked into “A Diamond is Forever”. I love that piece of music. It is rich, dramatic, and exciting. It is “Palladio” and composed by Karl Jenkins – a modern classicist (he’s actually still alive). Until I wrote this post, I thought Beethoven wrote it. If you are creating music in the 20th century that people think was written 300 years ago, I think you know how to fit in with the big guys.

So, imagine my curiosity when I found someone who remixed it way back in 2002. Yes, Just like they do with Lady Gaga, Madonna, LMFAO, etc, etc. Someone remixed Palladio! I listened to the clip and immediately downloaded and added it to my workout playlist.

I went for a run with my workout music on shuffle as always and at the 1.9 km mark on my run, that song started up. I was running on a generally straight patch, and I had just run up a bunch of slow twisty hills. I was tired and really didn’t feel like running anymore. But I felt like I was in a commercial – not for diamonds this time, but something that mattered. Something bold. Important. Something bigger than just a girl running on the road.

I ran.

June 6th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: I cut 30 seconds off my regular min/km pace today.

Allegretto by Bond from their Album Shine

The Daily EO: May 31st, 2012

This is the last time I have to write “May” – at least for another year. My idea to purge my superstitious feelings about May is a good one, but I think that I will have to repeat and repeat many years over to truly eliminate my feelings about it. But for a first effort, I am feeling that I did okay.

One of the Maintenance May items was continuing our work from Fit April. And here are my results:

I am happy with the results – considering that I continued to enjoy life while eating right and exercising most of the time. I am down 13 pounds since I started and I am happy with that. But really pisses me off? Emile’s results are what pisses me off:

Seriously? He lost 30 pounds in 2 months. No real hiccups – just a smooth transition. Almost daily runs and some food denials, but nonetheless, he just dropped 30 pounds like it was nothing. And if it was nothing, why didn’t he do it before? Honestly, it seems unfair that men can fluctuate so easily. He looks and feels great. And if I don’t watch my back, he is going to overtake me – although he is going to start getting that gaunt look. And both are just wrong.

We have a run next weekend that we are both hoping to again best our personal bests. We’ll have to see.

May 31st, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: May in my rearview.

The Daily EO: May 27th, 2012

If you need the will to run (or to keep running), try running in May in Muskoka 8:30 pm at night on a rural road.

May 27th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: Running the furthest and fastest I’ve ever done to save my blood for me instead of the blood suckers who live in the forest awaiting sundown.

Maintenance May Day 27:
Signed up for a CSA share even though I have no idea what or where will be happening this summer.

The Daily EO: May 25th, 2012

Today I signed up for a website called Run Hundred. Every couple of days, I get an e-mail from them to tell me about new songs added to their site that are available for voting on. 40,000 people then listen to the songs and indicate whether they would work out to the songs. There is a top ten of the month, top ten of all time, top ten work-out collections, etc.

To me, music is essential for working out. My favorites right are Hello! (Martin Solveig featuring Dragonette) and We Speak No Americano (Yolanda Be Cool and DCup). I hear those two songs, my feet want to start running. I have about 55 songs on my workout mix now and I have probably heard each of then about 20+ times or so. I am okay with that – because every time I hear one it signals to my brain that it is time to start exercising. But honestly, sometimes I feel like I’m in Grade 9 listening to Richard Marx. I’m hoping Run Hundred will help me keep my mix fresh. I especially like running with my iPod as it focuses me on me – the running, the exercise. It is not about anyone else but me. Pass me, or I pass you, this is about and for me, not anyone else.

When I attended UVic in the mid 90s, I attended a seminar on how to use e-mail – because frankly I had never used e-mail before. It was before spam, before blogs, before social networks, before the internet changed things. I am approaching middle age, I guess – and there are children now don’t know what a World Book Encyclopedia Set is. I still use the books – that my mom hasn’t recycled yet – to settle discussions when I return home. But I wouldn’t suggest looking up cell phones, Russia, Geothermal Energy, American Idol, George Bernard Shaw or blogging.

I am not lamenting the old or the new. Just amazing what we can do now, that just 20 years ago hadn’t even been conceived of.

Now, I can a summary of 40,000 people’s opinions on workout music delivered directly to my e-mail in-box. If I like any of the songs, I can click (Amazon, iTunes, or Emusic) and have it delivered to my iPod and be running with it in 2 minutes. My god. Remember the Columbia House CD Club? We thought that was pretty sophisticated.

May 25th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: A wish that the world’s children could experience both the convenience of the new and the romance of the old.

Maintenance May Day 25:
Made Beet Brownies. Ate 6 Beet Brownies. Beets or not, still pretty calorically dense. (soul).

The Daily EO: May 12th, 2012

Alcohol is poison. It takes a large dose to kill us but nonetheless it is poisonous. It slows your reactions, impairs our judgement, affects our metabolism and pushes our liver to process out the toxins. But yet, we wrap it up in fancy bottles and talk about strawberry undertones and food pairings.

The detrimental effects of processing alcohol on my body was obvious than when I ran Saturday morning. (see how committed we are?) After consuming about 10 ozs of wine on Friday with delicious food pairings, I ate a healthy, low-calorie healthy dinner and went to bed at a reasonable time. We drove to an area of vineyards near Emile’s parent’s house (read: nice and flat) and started out. The flatness of the area had that dessert oasis effect where things seem much closer than they are. I ran and I ran and I ran and when I finally made it to my goal – a cross street – I checked my GPS and found I had run . . . . . 7/10 kms. Huh? This is not possible! And the worse part? The car was now .7 kms away.

I managed to sprint, stumble, and drag myself 3.3 kms, but it wasn’t gazelle-like nor inspiring. Emile, of course, dug deep and managed to get in 5.0 kms. I walked another 1 km and collapsed by the car.

This is how I know alcohol is poison. Because it couldn’t be my will that is weak.

May 12th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: Visiting 18 Niagara-on-the-Lake wineries today despite the first-hand knowledge of the impacts of alcohol on my body. Food, wine, summer weather, and good company. Who cares what tomorrow brings?

Maintenance May Day 12:
A day with Emile’s parents – a nice break for two extremely hard-working people (Family)
Baked a vegan chocolate cake that the who family could eat (vegan due to allergies) for my sister-in-law’s birthday on Sunday. (Body/Connection)
Did not steal extra Bergamont Cupcakes at the final winery of the day despite an overwhelming desire of the delicious orange frosting and moist interior despite the host’s back being turned. (Soul)

The Daily EO: May 8th, 2012

Oh my God. If you have more oxygen moving around your body, you can run further. This may seem elementary to you, and it is elementary to me. But sometimes it just needs proving. My body was like a busy Dim Sum restaurant’s conveyor belt – a bunch of empty plates and little food.

I told you about my iron issue a week or so ago. And for over a week now I have taken 54 mg of iron* with Vitamin C and B12 a day in addition to my usual diet. I hit the track today awaiting my old friend “the stitch” to return about the 1.0 km mark like it usually does. Nope. Not at 1.2. Not at 1.4. A twinge at 1.6. And back again at 1.8. Hmmmm. This is strange. Have I done anything different? No, less sleep than I should have. Less breakfast than I should have. So, I was not set-up for a good run. Yet, for the first time since the Chocolate Race, I was able to run 1.8 km without stopping. I tried the same thing today and found the same result – 2.0 km without stopping. And a little stitch at that point, but nothing too bothersome.

It’s a Miracle! I’m cured! Now if my stupid calves/shins would stop complaining all the time we’d be in business.

May 8th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: Being able to start to the push to build my endurance to 5 km. Hooray! . . . . . . . . Wait, if I am cured, I have no excuse to stop running. Dammit.

*I will be dropping my intake once I get my levels to normal.

Maintenance May Day 8:
Visited the Trinity United Church to watch a movie about Dr. Burzynski and his fight for his seemingly effective cancer treatment to be accepted by the general medical community. Definitely one side documentary. Definitely where you hang out on Tuesday nights in Huntsville if you are a bit crazy. Definitely one of those nights where you wish your youthful good looks didn’t stand out so much in the blue hair forest. Definitely made us talk on the drive home. Definitely going to the next movie next Tuesday night – after all the crazies are the most fun. (knowledge)

Completed a personality test as a pre-screen for an interview. Hopefully, I have a personality. (career)

The Daily EO: May 6th, 2012

Part of the learning I had from the dietician we visited last week was to try to do all of your exercise at one time in the day. Your body starts off by burning carbohydrates, then moves on to burning fat after that. If you do little spurts, you probably will not burn as much fat if you completed it all at a time. This caused my husband – who just last week nodded his head in agreement of my assessment of endurance runners as crazy – to increase his running distance to 10K. But both Saturday and Sunday, he ran 10K (only walking a couple of laps). Now I think he is crazy too.

This lead me to change the way that I do exercise too. Often, I would do two or three bouts of working out in a day as I accomplished other things. Sunday, I completed 66 minutes of cardio/strength training followed directly by a 3K run. This was not fun, but I’ll try it to see if it garners better results for me.

I choose to run on a side road out here near my house. The local tracks are great, but the continuous round and round – I think I am going to tip over sometimes. And I lose count. (How hard is it to count to 12.5 or 25?) No only that – it was a nice spring day out – people were out. When I run with other people around, I don’t want them to see me stop or collapse. So I push myself to go a bit further around the bend until the people are out of sight. It is effective.

I do not trust dogs. Several of you have dogs and you know that I rarely touch them (they smell) and I don’t like to be close to them. I think it is because I could be seriously injured or killed by a dog. I know, I know . .. you will all say to me. . . “Buttons here is so gentle, so well trained”, but the fact remains if Buttons decided to use his teeth and weight to attack me, I would be maimed. My cat often decides to attack me and it is generally futile – he doesn’t have the strength to be able to seriously injure me beyond a deadly case of cat scratch fever. I was assaulted by a Doberman while swimming in Fairy River a couple of years ago. He wanted to play, but in water over my head he was much too strong for me. I was badly scratched on my legs and I was certain I was going to drown. The dog was not on a leash nor was he trained well enough to return to his owner when called. (Please note, I did not engage this dog in any way except being in the same beach area.) That was one of the most terrifying events of my life.

I am not writing this to say that dogs are evil, or dogs should be destroyed, but I do believe that a dog must be trained and kept on a leash (if not at home). For the dog’s safety as well as mine. Bottom line: if my cat wanted to kill me, he’d probably have to sneak into my bed and put arsenic in my mouth. If a dog wanted to kill me, most wouldn’t need arsenic.

So, I am nervous around dogs – big and small (they are all dogs). While I ran down the street, I passed a house where everyone was gathered at the foot of the driveway in lawn chairs. Why do people sit in the front of their property like that? When I ran by, all FOUR of their dogs started chasing me and barking at me. They did not return home when their owners called them. It was frightening, and I burned some more fat by bumping up the pace trying to outrun their territory.

May 6th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: Running down the street with four tiny little yappy dogs (mini yorkshire terriers?) barking their hearts out at me. I was frightened and felt ridiculous about feeling frightened. Afterall, wearing other clothes I could have been an heiress with my accessory dogs on Rodeo Drive.

Maintenance May Day 6:
Agreed to have my résumé presented to another employer by a recruiter. (Career)

The Daily EO: May 4th, 2012

I received my exam results today. I didn’t study much, although did a lot of cramming for it in April. It was was kind of like an IQ test – a lot of it depended on my DNA and upbringing. But as I listened to the exam results, I felt relief, then pride. After all, didn’t I just do swimmingly?

When I run, I start finding it difficult around the 1 km mark. I have often wondered, “Do other people have the same problems and they are mentally strong enough to will their bodies to carry on?” Or is there something wrong with me? Am I just not built for running? Between pain in my calves and my lungs feeling like they are not getting enough oxygen, I then think that people who are endurance runners are completely crazy and the mentally strongest people on earth. But maybe they have better bodies than me?

For those of you who have followed a Couch to 5K officially program, you know they usually start you out on something like walk 1 minute, run 5 minutes, walk 1 minute etc. When I first saw these instructions, I thought “Who can run 5 minutes?”. Really? There are people who are sitting on the couch who can just get up and run 5 minutes? Wow, I am quite unfit.

But back to acing my exam – except for 1 aspect. Everything else – cholesterol, triglycerides, vitamins, platelets, White Blood Cell Count, Albumin, Creatinine, CK, Glucose Serum Fasting, you name it – exactly where it should be! My blood pressure was 85/40. Alas, the iron ruined my perfect result. My ferritin levels are 12: “Iron Deficient”. (the lowest category on the scale). Interestingly, iron carries oxygen on the red blood cells to the muscles in the body – hmmm.

Did you know that Iron absorption in the body is hindered by some items? Polyphenols in tea; Phytate in legumes, soybeans and whole grains; Oxalate in spinach, chard, kale, and sweet potatoes; vegetable proteins and calcium? Um, is that not my diet right now? I live on tea, I always eat whole grains, I eschew white rice for quinoa, I eat kale and spinach in smoothies, etc? And these things – though required and good for me too – actually help to block iron absorption? No wonder there are so many diet books out there – this stuff is complicated.

My calf pain also may have a cause – Chromic Exertional Compartment Syndrome (CECS). Doesn’t that sound terrible? It basically means that when your muscles expand during exercise they are trying to expand beyond the “muscle compartment”. As you can imagine, this causes pain. But we’ll see about that – I am going to get a referral to a sports doctor to confirm.

May 4th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: It’s not my fault! I am mentally strong! It’s the iron and the potential CECS! I knew it!

Maintenance May Day 4:
Visit to the Nurse Practitioner (NPs in Canada can do anything a doctor can except prescribe narcotics) for a full review of my health. And they actually spend time talking to you. And the appointments start on time. (body)
Consultation with a Registered Dietician with Emile to review our diets and fitness regimes. (body)
Updated my immunizations for Tetanus, Whooping Cough and Diphtheria. (body)
Visit to the spa to get a pedicure. Hello beautiful blue toes! (body).

PS Yes, I have already added a iron supplement to my vitamin intake.

The Daily EO: April 29th, 2012

The morning finally arrived. Our race. Our chocolate race. We were up at 8:00 to dress and have a good solid breakfast to power ourselves through 5K. Instead of taking the shuttle, we drove to Port Dalhousie ourselves and found parking on a nearby street. The day was one of those perfect days – sunny but crisp, cool but the potential for a wonderfully warm afternoon. We were prepared – a new firm sports bra (for me – nice to have the girls strapped in tight) and new long running pants for Emile (for those turkey legs of his). A good night rest, a solid breakfast, no alcohol, and a month+ of training.

Could we make our goals of a personal best? Considering the chocolate pits stations on the course? Hills? People?

Goals: Emile: 34:00 Minutes Susan: 38:00 Minutes These goals are based on our best average times on an indoor track – no hills, no crowds, no chocolate and controlled climate.

The chocolate race course is a an out and back one meaning you run 2.5 kms and then loop back to finish where you started. I have never run more than 1.5 kms without stopping, Emile has consistently been able to run 5 km only stopping for a water break each km. We agreed we would not wait for each other (like I’d be doing any of the waiting!), but simply run the best race that we could. As we were separated, I could not tell you what Emile’s strategy was, but mine was to just keep going. I had a target to run from the start until about the 1.75 km mark where a very steep hill marked the entrance into Westcliffe park – and I made it. At the 2.25 km mark, I had some Gatorade and a chocolate dipped marshmallow and strawberry on a stick. Hello, yum!

At the 3 km mark, my old friend the stitch acted up, and I had to walk and stretch a bit, but I kept going as fast as I could. At 3.5 km, I thought I was done, but I didn’t like other people passing me, so I found something to keep going,

And finally, seeing that finish line across the parking lot and Emile waiting for me, I managed to dig deep, ignore my shins, ignore my lungs, and ignore my stitch and ran as fast as I could.

I blog to you about many EOs – mundane, silly, ironic, funny, but today’s EO is one of the most emotional ones yet for me. When I crossed that finish line, tears – and not from the wind – came to my eyes. I am so proud of myself! So proud that I ran 90% of the race. So proud that I could turn such a difficult winter into an accomplishment. We set our goals modestly, and trained for this race and we set fair goals based on previous results.

2 chocolate croissants, 1 chocolate milk, 4 truffles, 1 brownie and 1 chocolate martini (yeah, a real one) each awaited our celebration at the end of the race. Why are more races not like this?

April 29th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary:

Emile Results:
Time: 29:55 (personal best, and -4:05 from target)
Overall Finish: 58th (!!)
Category Finish: 6th (OMG!!!)

Susan Results:
Time: 34:25 (personal best and -3:35 from target)
Overall Finish: 126th
Category Finish: 32nd (!!)

We Run for Chocolate! (updated with official timing)