Slow Solo Long Run - Week 2 Antelope Canyon 50 Miler Training Cycle

This week flew by.... literally.  It was another week of flying to Hong Kong for me with a PA Day tacked onto Friday which means that the kids are off of school which equals NO LONG run on Friday.

The way my friends and I had worked out our training plan was that we would do our back to back long runs on Fridays and Saturdays. This is largely because I tend to be out of the country Tuesdays through Thursdays.  Ultra marathon training is different from regular marathon training cycles in that there are two high mileage runs back to back on consecutive days.

With the PA Day scheduled for the Friday, my friends and I realized that we would have to do one of our long runs on another day.  I had no choice but to do mine in Hong Kong while I was on my layover.

Monday - Speed Workout. I had to squeeze this workout in early as I had promised to take my father to a doctors appointment. He was recently diagnosed with Prostate Cancer and has since had a number or appointments.  I pulled up and speed workout that I had done a few years back while training for my marathon.

Work out is Warm up for 15 minutes, then 4x400 with decreasing rest times repeated 4 times followed by at 15 minute cool down.

I hadn't done a speed workout in ages and I've realized how much I dislike them. I love that they are somewhat short and sweet but I always feel like my heart is going to explode and that I will vomit at the end of the sprints. However, when it is all over I feel amazing.

Tuesday morning was back to work for mommy. Quick lunch prep in the morning and off to the airport I go. I used to wake up at 4:30 to squeeze in a quick treadmill run before making lunches and heading to work, but I found that rest is way more beneficial. The flight to Hong Kong is 15 hours on a good day and I need every moment of shut eye to look my best :) , I mean be nice to the passengers.

Wednesday afternoon I arrived in Hong Kong. I was lucky to be working with a good friend and when that happens, I usually abandon the workout for that day and we catchup. My girlfriend loves Thai food and we found a trendy well recommended spot online and headed out straight after working our 15 hour flight.  If you're ever looking for an authentic Thai spot Chachawan is a great spot to check out. Their food is from the Issan Region in northeast Thailand. My girlfriend chose this spot because there was Larp on their menu. I had never tried Larp before. It is essentially a lettuce wrap with delicious ground meats and Thai spices.

I had decided that I would attempt to complete my first of the two long runs in Hong Kong. Thursday was the only day I had left to run the 17 miles required. I would have loved to have done it in the trails, but that would have required the whole day. I only had a few hours as my flight back to Toronto was later that day.

Views from the Promenade

I headed out to Shatin bright and early.  Shatin is a city along the Shing Mun River with an extensive promenade for runners/walkers and bicycles.  There is no road traffic, so there are no traffic lights or cars to battle. The battle with me with these long runs are that I have gotten spoiled by my running buddies. They keep me company and motivate me to keep on moving. I didn't pack my music as I haven't listened to any music for the past few years.  I know that a lot of the struggle for me is in my head. I kept reminding myself that was only 17 miles and it was 18 degrees. I was running in shorts and a t shirt while my friends had to run in snow and negative temperatures.  I eventually got it done with some pretty bad chaffing to prove it.

I made it back in time to the hotel for a quick shower and back onto the bus to take us to the airport for the 15 hour flight back home.

Friday was PA Day. When I am home, it's fully mom mode for me.  Kids and I had hoped to sleep in, but that did not happen. We had scheduled parent teacher interviews for the kids for this day bright and early at 8 am. I dragged myself and the kids out of bed and we headed out to meet their teachers. I'm relieved to say that they went well, but I had also scheduled a bunch of other appointments for the kiddies.  It was also BLACK FRIDAY!!!!!

New Shoes

The kids and I thought about heading out to a mall, but decided against it when we drove by a few and saw the parking lots.  We settled for Chapters/Indigo and got some goodies for all.  My son hates shopping so to make life better for my daughter and I, we dropped him off at grandmas and headed back out. We were lucky to have some time to have a quick visit with friends visiting from out of town for liquid nitrogen infused cheese curls at Cool N2.  Kids had more activities before rushing out and having a lovely sushi filled girls night out.

Saturday - Long run part 2.  9 miles through the trails with my buddy.  We met up early, but it was a bit too dark to head into the trails so we decided to run some hills at the trail head before heading into the darkness of the woods. It had snowed earlier in the week, but the trail had been used. Some parts were quite slippery, but we were able to get in our 9 miles before we both had to head home to our mom duties. Because I tend to work weekdays, we try to jam all of our kids activities on weekends. We ended up being uber drivers on weekends to all their different activities. Luckily, we had dinner plans with friends at the end of the day, which was incentive for us to power through.

Full Moon to Start the Run

My friend from Rochester was visiting this weekend and was able to bring all our running shoes that my run buddies and I had ordered a few weeks ago. I am so thankful to have my buddy living in the USA so that I can ship many of my purchases to her. I go through so many pairs of running shoes that it gets quite expensive. I was thrill to try out my new pair of Saucony KOA trail shoes that I had ordered on my Saturday trail run. I will write another post on my thoughts on these shoes in another post. 

Sunday - Rest day. Wonderful sermon at church to reboot my soul.  Hubs and I decided to treat the kids to one of their favourite places to eat.... Jolibee. Jolibee opened up its first location in Toronto here earlier this year, but we had not gone due to the ridiculous line ups.  People were lining up for hours when it first opened up. We were lucky to have had it in August when we were in Winnipeg.  I think I ate all my calories back and more over this weekend.

Sushi Feast

How was your week? Anyone race?

Wet Start to Ultra Training Cycle

I was surprised that training was starting this week. I thought that I had a few more weeks to slack off and take it easy, but here we are.  My friends and I have been running  trails leading up to this week. After training and racing two ultras with me, they are helping me through another training cycle.  They are doing what they can to help me succeed at the Antelope Canyon 50 Miler.  I am lucky to have my friends to train with me an race this with me in the Spring os 2019.

My job takes me away to foreign destinations where I have to adjust my training.  My friends try to accommodate my schedule if possible so that we can do our long runs together.  

This week I was flying to Hong Kong which meant that I would be away for 3 days out of the week.

Monday, I was able to run with 10 km with my friends L and K. K had just returned from racing the Chicago Marathon a few weeks ago so it was nice to catch up with her.  Did I mention that she's in her 60's and an Ironman Finisher. 

Tuesday morning I head out bright and early to the airport after helping hubs get the kids ready for school. This week, I was off to  Hong Kong, which means I usually get no running/activity completed for the day as the flight is 15 hours and with the time change, I am landing in Hong Kong Wednesday afternoon the next day.

Wednesday late afternoon I get into my hotel room after the 15 hour flight and pass out. I had set my alarm to wake up and head to the track for some speed work or the gym, but neither happened.  When I finally got up, the guilt set in from in activity. I have some workout videos saved on my iPad and I did a quick 30 minute Insanity session in my room and then was out for the count.

Thursday morning I wake up and head out to Lion Rock Country Park for a trail run. Hong Kong has an extensive trail system that I discovered last year as I was training for the 100km race. I was thrilled to find out about all the trails. I have been flying to Hong Kong for over 15 years and had never gone into the trails. Hong Kong is very lush and surrounded by mountain. With the help of the Internet, I was able to discover many routes.

The Lion Rock hike is the closest to my hotel and is easy to get to. It takes me about 30 minutes on public transportation to get there.  The trail section I do is about 8 km and 469 m in elevation.  When I first did this route, it took me over 2 hours to complete. Every time I go there now, I try to beat my previous time.  This trail has A LOT of stairs.  The first time on the trail, I was with a fellow crew member and we saw wild boars. This time, I had to wait for 2 monkeys to get off the path and let me  pass. Weather was nice but still got my sweat on. Then head back to the hotel, shower and get back on the plane home to Toronto.

We landed in Toronto Thursday night to Toronto's first big snow storm for this season.  The captain had said "a little dusting of snow", but he was wrong.  By Friday morning, the Toronto area had accumulated 11 cm of snow.

Snow on the Plane Parked Beside Us.

Friday morning, I picked up my friend K to the mechanic to drop off my car to have the winter tires installed. We dropped the car off and went for a run. I had to run 25 km and she was going to keep me company for 15 km of it.  The weather was terrible. It was still snowing from the night before. The snow was wet and heavy, perfect for making snowmen, but not ideal for running.  Not all the roads or sidewalks had been plowed.   We ran on both the sidewalks and the road hoping to avoid all the wet, slushy snow.  Some of the sidewalks were light plowed and some parts were snow covered. It was like running in quick sand. When we went onto the roads, it was wet. The snow had either melted or was driven over so much that it was all slush and with every passing car or bus we were getting soaked.  Within the first 10km, both of our feet and shoes were soaked. I ran K home at 15 km and finished a l0 km loop to the mechanic to pick up my car finishing at 25 km. It worked out quick well.

Saturday morning , the crew came out for 15 km run. The roads were finally dry after snowy day the day before. It was nice to run with dry feet and the gang to keep the conversations going.

I was treated to a girls night out Saturday evening.  We went to the theatre to watch Ain't to Proud, a musical about the life of The Tempations and the music of Motown. It was a great show and the performance were spectacular.

Sunday - Rest day

Total mileage -  61.7 km

How was your week?  Do you have any races you're training for?

DNF’s and Moving Forward

I finally decided to re visit my blog. It has been a long time since I have written anything. I look back to when I first started writing and realize that I started blogging November 2012, 6 years ago after the birth of my son. I was very passionate about running and wanted to share my experiences and love of running to whomever would listen. I used to follow many other bloggers who would motivate me and made me want to be a better runner. I had hoped to do the same, but feel like I have failed. As the years progressed, I wrote less and less.  But I would like to give it a try again.

Life has gotten busy, but lets be real who's isn't? So where do I start ? It seems like I have tried to re start blogging many times. Blogging was therapeutic for me, like running is.  My last post was about my first ultra marathon, the Monument Valley 50 miler. It was a wonderful experience and I decided to sign up for a 100K race the following year. 

I have since run a few more marathons, finished a sprint triathlon and DNF'ed (Did Not Finish) my attempt at a 100K this past May. I had gone into the 100K race with so much hope and had hoped to at least finish so the DNF was a huge blow to me and my pride. I had always heard about people not finishing races because of different circumstances, but I never thought it would be me.

I was able to go to Boston this past April to cheer my friends at one of the coldest and wettest Boston Marathons in history.  I was inspired by so many and have not given up hope to maybe .... one day I will run it myself.

I decided to take the summer off to recharge. I have enjoyed the past few months running for pleasure and when I wanted to without following any training plans. I enjoyed training for my first triathalon. I spent more time on my bike and swam a little. The triathalon was something that I had always wanted to do and it was a good distraction for me. It allowed me to continue training but at a lower intensity.

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It was the first time in a long time where I was not obsessing about following a training plan and making sure I was out everyday pounding the pavement. I spent the summer riding and running trails with friends.

We took a family trip with friends to Lisbon in August and a few weeks later I did a mother daughter trip to Madrid with my daughter and a friend. Both these trips sidelined any running that I had planned to do. But I had an amazing time exploring new places with family. Seeing their faces light up from all the new things they were seeing and experiencing.

After, my DNF in May my friends decided that we should to another ultra next year. I really wanted to do it but the fear of letting them down was always at the back of my mind. I was having a bit of a pity party but in the end, we signed up for the Antelope Canyon 50 Miler in March 2019.   I am lucky to have friends who believe in me and are willing to drag me through the desert again. Come and follow me on my journey. 

I am going to try to post once a week, if not once a month to keep the readers updated on this next training cycle.  Honestly, I am not looking forward to the many miles that I will be logging the next few weeks leading up to the 50 miler, but I know I will be so thankful and overwhelmed when I am running in the desert in March.   I enjoy the friendships that I have made over the past few years through running, riding, and all the activities we do.