Welcome to February

Hey all!

I will be your blog writer for February. For those you do not know me, please take a look at my two blogs I did in November 2015

http://paradiserunningclub.blogspot.ca/2015/11/thats-hard-question.html

http://paradiserunningclub.blogspot.ca/2015/11/the-half-half-marathon.html

I am not good at flying by the seat of my pants, I’m a planner so to make sure I post more blogs than I did last time (and don’t forget what I’m going to talk about),  I planned out a few ideas. Here are some of the things I’m going to talk about.

A look back to 2016

Running with the Gazelles       

Watching the watch.

Races

There might be a few more depending, but these are the ones I’m going to focus on for now. I hope you enjoy.

I think my calves were laughing at me

One thing after the other, something always pops up or gets scheduled so I am not able to run. I guess that is called life. 

We started the biggest loser contest at work, even if I don’t win the money I am really hoping it will help me to lose my final 17 pounds.  But the money would be nice. Haha

One of my co workers has been trying to get me to go for walks during lunch break but I was able to make up excuses not to go because I don’t like the cold and I like to eat. Well, another coworker said, “bring in your sneakers we will walk the stairs on our break.” CRAP! How can I get out of that one??? I can’t! So I brought in my sneakers and we walked 248 stairs on our break. (We went up a couple more flights just for fun) It hurt. It hurt a lot.  The fact that I did Zumba the night before didn’t help either.

So we get ready and start walking. I look up. Holy F!

We get to the 10^th Floor. Deadly. We are done. Got a selfie of me and the view. 

Then I hear my coworker say, “There are more stairs!” DEAR LORD NO!

So we make it up the rest of the stairs. 11 Floors. Who knew? Haha

When we finished my calves felt like jell-o. Every once in a while they would kinda shake. I think they were laughing at me.

Yesterday I actually got on the treadmill. Only for 30 minutes but at least I did it.

Training starts soon for the USR half that I am not sure if I agreed to or not. J

I am going to run again. I promise!

This week has not been good for running. At all. I have a sore throat, sore neck, bad back, bad knee and absolutely no energy to run. I have attempted to get on the treadmill everyday but ended up in my bed asleep each time.  I do think I dreamt about running one night so that should count, right?

I did however get to a Zumba class which was so much fun.  My hip hop instructor Janelle teaches it every Wednesday night from 8-9 at Revolutions dance. Come out and try it!! 

I need to get out running more to get my weight loss goal quicker! HAHA I have about 52 pounds gone now and need about 17 more gone to hit my final weight loss goal. 

Well this blog was short. Here’s hoping I can get out for the group runs this week.

"Make sure you run slow"

First off, I would like to reference this blog post where Shelley said she never wanted to run again and wanted to punch Pete Soucy in the face. Well, It looks like we are in training now for the USR half Marathon. My brain hurts just thinking about it. I thought I had until September for the Huffin Puffin Half.

I was thinking about running all day. I haven’t run all week. I had best intentions on running but my body didn’t want to move. At all. There was one morning I woke up at 5 am and I thought, wow, I can actually get up and go on the treadmill.  Well within time I talked myself out of it. I am really good at that!

So we finally all pile out of our vehicles tonight onto the Peter Barry Duff parking lot and proceed to set our watches for our run. By the time Shelley, Lori and I got to the end of the parking lot onto the road we met up with Madeline and Ron. Madeline was telling us that it is really slippery and to “make sure we run slow”. I busted out laughing, who is kidding? She knows me too well.

This was by far one of the scariest runs for me. I was so nervous that I was going to fall. I lost my footing a couple times going down Buckingham but was able to catch myself, which is good because I didn’t fall but bad because I always “tweek” my back.  I attempted to turn around and go home three times even before the three way stop. But then if I had stopped I would “say” I am going to home and going on the treadmill but we all know that is not happening.

It was also scary because I had to pee and during my whole run I was thinking that if I did fall I would probably pee in my pants. I was thinking of different scenarios in my head if I did fall and how far into the run I was, what I would actually do.  I told Shelley on the way back up Buckingham of my fear.  Her response was, “I have been binge watching my 600 lb life, I think I can handle if you pee in your pants.” No wonder we are friends.

“you ain’t cool unless you pee your pants” – Adam Sandler

I am happy to say I got back to my car safely and I will be asking Marc to buy me those yak track things for my birthday. And maybe a pack of depends. 

Enter 2017

So. Hi. It’s me again. I figured I would write January’s blog to get me motivated again to run in 2017. I had a really good year in 2016, I ran my first Half Marathon.  It was hard but not as hard as expected. Probably because of the people I ran it with, Shelley and Lori (Paula was injured and was tracking our run through Shelley’s running app).  We had a lot of fun running; we really didn’t care about the time (but did it under 3 hours) because we stopped at every water station which made us stop for every porta potty. We also stopped and posed for pictures for the race photographer (because that is what we do) and there was a check point that had chocolate. Who wouldn’t stop for chocolate?

So when we got back after the race everything slowed down for me running wise. I did the odd run and then helped out with the Learn to Run group (which I love doing). Then it got cold and I got lazy. Well I can’t say I got lazy because I was swimming with Splash and Dash twice a week. Then I got injured. SURPRISE Renee got injured! NEVER happens! So when everyone says swimming is the best form of exercise and you can’t hurt yourself. Don’t listen to them. HAHA I did something to my rotator cuff and it hurt. It hurt a lot! There were times I would come home from swimming and crawl in the bed and hold my arm and just try and sleep and not move.

December I didn’t do much. My shoulder seems to be on the mend and I have the running bug again. Christmas Day I was sitting on the couch drinking a Diet Pepsi and eating a (big) bag of Salt and Vinegar chips. I should let you know that it was only 10:30 am. I was looking out the window and noticed it was actually nice out and good running weather. I drank the rest of my Diet Pepsi (I have an addiction) but put the chips away and got up and got ready. Then getting ready was a challenge. I couldn’t find my phone arm band and my wireless headphones were not charged. I almost put back on my pajamas and got the bag of chips.  But I decided not to run with my phone and I used my Ipod shuffle. I did 1 and 1’s and it felt great.

Thursday’s run day rolls around. Lori and Shelley were bouncing around the idea of running at the Field house. I was in. sort of. By the time work was over the weather was actually nice out and the girls decided to run from Peter Barry Duff. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go but I did. It was only the three of us but it was such a good run! It was my last run of 2016!

Enter 2017. Shelley texted (is that a word?) us to see if we wanted to run in the afternoon.  It was a relaxed run and perfect running conditions. We made some 2017 running goals one which includes running the Huffin Puffin Half Marathon.  Oh and this was my second run that I didn’t run with music. That is my new training. To see if I can run longer distances without music. Stay tuned. We will see how that goes.

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As of today I have 51.3 pounds gone and with the help of my running buddies and Weight Watchers I will get the last 18 pounds gone this year. 

Happy Running!

Suck It Up

It’s 5:45 PM.  I’m hydrated, fed and fully dressed.  And staring at the PRC Runs feed waiting for someone to post “due to the anticipated apocalyptic rain, group run has been cancelled for this evening”.  It’s the message that rarely comes.  I get in the car, turn on the arse warmer and make the 75 second trek from my house to Peter Barry Duff.

This is the part of winter running that I hate.  It’s clucking ridiculous, really.  For a person that spends most of the day wearing two bejeezly sweaters with the heat on “cremate” in her office, I warm up freakishly fast when I work out.  The majority of last winter I wore nothing but my infamous blue pullover with the pony-tail accommodating hood and a pair of long pants.  I love running in the cold.  Rain even.  Why do I go through this ritual two evenings a week?  I don’t seem to have this problem on the weekend.  The weekday runs require a lot more effort.  I’ve started keeping groceries at work so I can have my toast with PB&J at 3:30 - it's all the other prep work that sends me over the edge.

If hubby is home, I’ll have to take my running gear with me in the morning so I can change at work and drive to the community centre or PBD.  This becomes a burden when I’ve already used 95% of my decision-making capacity deciding what I’m going to wear for the day four hours before I actually get dressed.  You see, when said spouse is home for two weeks, I get back into my regular routine of going to the gym before work.  Eighteen years later and I’d still rather be hit in the head with a ball of my own knit than pack my gym bag.  And guaranclukinteed I'll forget to bring a change of underwear.  Or a bra.  There is nothing worse than wearing a sweat-soaked racerback bra all day, only to change into another racerback bra after you've been chafed to Bebus.  Take my word for it, fellas.   

If hubby is away, I’ll have to leave work at 4:30, pick up the child at his afterschool program, drop him off at mom’s house (God love 'er) and then drive home to change.  This is the sketchy part of the program.  I could have 1-1/2 hours alone in my house.  One-and-a-half hours.  Alone.  There are gym bags, back packs, garbage bags and laundry baskets everywhere.  The dishwasher is full of clean dishes.  The counter is full of dirty dishes.  Oh, the progress I could make…

Unfortunately, as tempting as it is, I wouldn’t get any satisfaction.  Because anxiety about the state of my house would be replaced by the fear that I’m headed toward a permanent hiatus from running.  And a clean head feels much better than a clean house.

So I choose to run.

And if we’re going to start using weather as an excuse, we’d never get out there.

I Think I’m Going To Like It Here…

My name is Tina Savoury and I began running in 2010.  Initially, my goal was to burn off some steam…get the old stress level under control.  I’d been hitting the gym for about 15 years, but was feeling like I needed to up the ante, so to speak.  I figured that struggling to breath for a half hour would be more productive than obsessing about what made me go home dissed off every day.  So off I went, all alone, to the Running Room and joined the learn-to-run program.

(As a side note, I have a penchant for swearing, but apparently this is not allowed.  I hope the not-so-subtle substitutions aren’t distracting.)

Life was grand until week three – run for three minutes, walk for one.  Sweet baby Besus.  All I could think about were the runners I would see on Sunday morning as my sister and I drank coffee and Bailey’s from the deck of her house on Empire Avenue.  They looked like they were having fun.  They didn’t look as though their lungs were afire.  And it’s not like they had started at the Dominion across the road - they would have ran all the way from the mother-clucking Running Room.  As I finished up my fifth 3-and-1, I thought “when is this 20 minutes of shell going to get easier”?

After completing the LTR program, the most I could muster in the years that followed was a 4.11k jaunt around Topsail Pond.  I found that doing this three times a week kept me in good enough condition that I could throw in a 5k fun run here and there.  But then in the spring of 2015, it happened.

The humidity hit me…and the Tely bug got me.

My cousin told me she was going to have a go at it and had joined PRC.  Interesting, I thought.  After pondering this for a couple weeks and trying out some longer distances on my own, I realized that running any longer than 4.11k alone is clucking boring and joined the group as well.

This is probably a good time to let Shelly Gosse know that (in my head) every time I see her, she’s wearing a white gown and a halo.  Not in a sexy way...more saint-like.  She got me through my first long run last June (13k to Skanky Tim’s) and the rest is history.

I’m never going to place in my age group (unless something catastrophic happens to the ladies in the 40-49 age group) or achieve PB’s race after race.  And that’s okay.  I realized last fall that isn’t my goal.  At the time, Andrew Tobin was heading to Florida for a half marathon, so I said I’d join him for a long run.  When we returned, soaked to the skin and thankful not to be lost anymore (that’s another story – sorry, Andrew), another member asked what I was training for.  I replied “nothing”.  Then she says “why are you running 18k”?  I thought about it and answered “because I can”.

Never again do I want to feel like I felt during week three of LTR.  Since the spring of 2015, I’ve done the Tely twice, four half-marathons and a handful of other races (including a little end-of-season jaunt known as the Cape to Cabot).  I don’t particularly enjoy the actual event itself, but the end of each race brings a sense of panic that keeps me signing up for more.  I’m terrified of falling off the wagon.  Of missing the group runs with my peeps.  I would rather keep doing the work and be able run 17k on the weekend for mitts and giggles than ease off and have to “start over” again.  Cuz that feeling clucks.  And I like where I am.