Post I Started A Couple Of Posts Ago

   So what was I in the middle of doing before the Sunshine Award and ROM entered my life....? Oh yeah, just a little update on my last training run!
   Have you ever had one of those days when you  feel like you want to run but you don't have a particular type of run planned so you get your gear on, head outside and then just... stop? And stand there at the end of your driveway, looking like a fool because you have all this twitchy energy and you don't know whether to go left or right, run hard or run soft? You don't know whether you want to do that hilly run, a trail run, a long run, or maybe hill repeats?
   I had that kind of run a couple of days ago, it wasn't even supposed to be a run day but I woke up feeling like I wanted to run so why not? Did some stretching, strapped on the Garmin and phone, threw on a sweatband and my cap and headed off. To the end of the driveway. Here is where my lack of actual planning kicked in. There were just way too many options for different kinds of runs, any one of which would have scratched my itch. Not only did I have all of the above options but I then doubled them by not being certain whether or not to maybe do them in the opposite direction.
   Finally I decided on a trail run. It had been awhile since I'd done one and I thought it might be fun so I started off.
   About two minutes later it occurred to me that I really needed to be able to discern the difference between "twitchy" energy and actual energy. I was about that far into the run when I realised I wasn't going to be able to complete it without walking, I was pretty well exhausted already! So I walked.
   I walked for about 200 hundred meters when all of the sudden a little bit of that twitchy stuff re-appeared. So I sprinted! And then walked again. And by then I was at a hill so I sprinted up the hill. By then I was at the forest so I ran hard on the trails and sprinted up every hill I found there.
   As I mentioned, it had been a while since I'd done the trail run I usually do.
   Here is what I discovered!

   Yes, part of my trail had almost totally disappeared! Funny how grass and weeds will grow over the summer! Not only that but it was also soaking wet from dew but I managed to make my way through anyway.
   Once the trail portion was done and I was back on concrete, I continued my run/sprint/walk routine, sprinting up anything that looked like a hill or an incline.
   Finally I was back on my own street. I was tired enough that I decided I would simply walk the last half of a kilometer. Well, I must have entered some sort of exhausted Zen-like state because as I was walking some kid on a bike came up very silently behind me, waited until he was right beside me, and then yelled "Rollie-ollie-OLLIE-oh!!"
   Well, on the "rollie" my body propelled itself two feet off the ground and by the second "ollie" I'd returned to earth with a thud. Grabbed my heart, put it back into the chest cavity, and became more aware of my surroundings.
   The kid on the bike was now looking back at me and smiling. I smiled back and...took off after him! His eyes got a little wider and he started pedalling hard.  I called out to him, "Gonna getcha, kid!" The kid looked back and his eyes got even  wider when he realized I was actually catching up!
   Now, I may be sixty, but I am extremely fast over short distances. As I was getting closer to the kid, I knew that I could catch up. The thought then ran through my head what happens when I do catch up? The very next thought was and how good does it look already to the neighbours, an old geezer chasing a young boy down the street?

   So I stopped, and the kid pulled away to, I'm sure, some relief on his part. I smiled at him, and yelled, "Getcha next time, kid!" He smiled back and sort of waved as he disappeared around the next corner.

   Fortunately, I was able to record all this! Cheers!

My LSW at the ROM!

   According to my schedule (rough as it is) today was supposed to have been a cross training day and my plan had been to head to the gym and do a weight circuit. It was, however, also the last day of summer holidays for the boys and we had planned on a special outing.
   Early this morning, Doralyn and I, two of our boys, Callum and Quin, one of their friends, Matt, and another of our friends, Louise, all hopped in cars and headed for ROM, in Toronto.
   If you're not from these parts, ROM stands for the Royal Ontario Museum. The boys had never been there and it had been ages for Doralyn and I so there was a fair  amount of excitement in the air. Our friend Louise actually has a membership at ROM so we were all able to get in for free! Thanks, Louise!
   There is a TON of stuff to see at ROM and the place is huge so you walk a lot. A LOT! And because you don't really want to miss anything you walk slow and a lot of the time you're just standing there. Hence, it became my LSW training day---Long Slow Walk!
   Okay, here is one of the best parts---PICS!
   The architecture inside the ROM is magnificent!

   Some of the human sights are awesome as well! My wife, Doralyn, seated and then standing in front of a Buddah.

   Louise, our ROM benefactor on this day, with the boys, in order, Quin, Matt and Callum.
   We saw dinosaurs!
   Here's a T-Rex!
   And a mastodon!










   On to gems and minerals!

   Such a waste of Pillsbury dough--- several packages, right down the tubes (or should I say "out of the tubes"?)

   This is actually about four feet tall, and it's amethyst. Very striking!

   I should break open boulders a little more often...

   Doralyn and Louise, unbeknownst to them, had a man with a camera spying on them as they examined gems. Thank God for a lack of ROM security staff....

   I could have literally taken thousands of pics today, just so much to see. But there is a lot of very slow walking and we all feel like we got a pretty good workout.
   It is a little hard to keep teenaged boys interested in a place like this. According to them they saw all the interesting stuff in the first hour (we were there for about four) so we asked them to show us what they liked the best. They took us to see all the ancient weapons and armour. We looked at the same armour and noticed that you could see spear and lance gouges on the headpiece. As soon as we mentioned this to the boys, they rushed right back to more intently inspect something they'd only given the "once over" their first time around. Ah, the benefit of looking at something with an experienced eye...!
   All in all, it was an awesome but very long day. If you ever happen to come and visit Toronto, this place is a must-see! If you do go, mention that Brian from "Strides" recommended the place. They won't have the slightest idea what you're talking about but go ahead and give it a try anyway!
   In the meantime, happy and healthy running to you all and I guess I'm back at it tomorrow!

Hey There, Sunshine!!

   In a totally surprising and somewhat shocking development, I discovered today that I have been nominated for a Sunshine Award!!






This is the little sucker...

   







   Suzan at Welcome to the Nuthouse (bless her heart) nominated me for this award and, at the same time, placed me in some awesome company! "Nuthouse" is such a feel-good kind of blog (lots of heartwarming zaniness) and I stalk visit it every day. Going to be a pretty high standard to maintain!
   So here's how this award works.
   There are nine other nominees and Suzan has given us ten questions to answer. Once we're done expounding on these questions, we then make up ten of our own questions and nominate ten of our blogging friends, who then get to choose if they'd like to participate.

   Here are Suzan's questions and my responses:

1.How long have you been blogging?
   I've only been doing "Strides" since last October, so less than a year. My other blog, "Neanderings", has been around since December of 2010 and is pretty well a mish-mash of "random thoughts on random subjects". This was fine and still is but after I started running last August I found I wanted to write about it so much that it only made sense to start a new blog!

2. What's the one movie you just can't turn off if you catch it on television?
   "Field of Dreams" does it to me pretty well every time. The whole father/son thing resonates and every time Ray Kinsella asks his ghost-dad for a game of catch in the final scene, it's tissue time for this viewer.

3. Coffee or tea?
   Coffee, every time. Tea, in a pinch. Take it double-double but am trying to work down from that.

4. Do you have any pets?
   Cats, four of them. All different ages, sizes and temperaments. One of them's sound asleep, curled up beside me on the couch as I write this. Never wanted pets but now I'm a cream-puff cat man, to somewhat paraphrase my wife.

5. Favourite phone app?
   Somewhat self-revealingly, I just had to check my phone to see what apps were on it. Mainly Facebook and the camera, pretty boring, I know!

6. Random fact about you.
   Hmmm...well, I'm actually a published poet. Managed to publish a handful of poems in respected places back in the late 80's. Then I stopped...

7. Favourite ice cream flavour, or if you're like me, favourite three ice cream flavours?
   (I'm Canadian, so I added a "u" to "flavor" and "favorite"--please don't take it out on Suzan)
   Chocolate, plain old chocolate. Which is weird because if I ask for a milkshake I ask for vanilla and if I want a sundae I ask for strawberry.

8. What was your dream job when you were a kid?
   Very early on, I wanted to be an Anglican minister (if you can imagine--but don't try) and then after that, a doctor. After that, high school happened and life got real in a hurry!

9. What was the last book you read?
   Currently, I have two or three books "on the go" but the last one I actually finished was either "Mortality" by Chris Hitchens or "Room" by Emma Donoghue. The subject matter is pretty dark in both of them, Hitchens wrote the book as he was dying and Donoghue wrote a fictional piece about a young woman who was kidnapped, impregnated by her captor, and raised her son all in one room. Highly reminiscent of recent unfortunate events.

10. If you won the lotto tomorrow, what is the first thing you would do and why?
   Well, isn't that the sixty-four thousand dollar question?! Basically, it kind of depends on the amount, I guess. Hundreds of thousands and I pay off the mortgage and bills. Millions and I become a philanthropist. Because I'm awesome!

   Whew, that was harder than I thought!

   Okay, once I develop my tech skills, here are the ten blogs I am nominating for the Sunshine Award, in no particular order. I also need to add that it was extremely hard to narrow it down to ten, there are just so many excellent blogs out there!

Mike, Rhoda, & Michelle @ 3 Cheap Runners

Victoria @ My Bright Pink Runners

Kristy @ Pittsburgh Runner

Brittany @ Britt's Running Style

Angela @ S F Road Warrior

Kathy @ RUNin' My Life

Erica @ Wornout Soles

Robin @ Me and Mo

Rachel @ truenorthrunner

Erin @ Running Tall

   So there you go and congrats to you all. Lots of Canadians here because I'm a Canadian! And the weird part is, I wasn't planning on being apologetic about it!

   If you'd like to participate, here's what you need to do:

1. Post the award logo in a post.
2. Link back to the person that nominated you.
3. Answer my ten questions on your blog post.
4. Nominate ten blogger friends, let them know, and post links to them.

   Easy-peasy, right?!

   Okay, now here are MY ten questions:

1. What is your dream run, location-wise?
2. Does your significant other share your running passion and, if not, is this an issue?
3. Do you ever see yourself not running? Why?
4. Has running prevented more "injuries" than it's caused?
5. Running preference---rain or snow?
6. Favourite sports team or individual
7. T.V. shows---week-to-week or "binge" watching?
8. Do you have other blogs? Which gets the most time?
9. Hoop.la or Google+?
10. Do you want to run? Or do you have to?

   There you are, hope you have a great time, and thanks for providing us with awesome blogging! (and forcing me to learn some new tech skills along the way...)

Brian @ Strides




    

Bit of a Springbank Redemption

   Two weeks from now, on Sept. 8, I have a race! I hadn't had a race since April as I've spent way too large a portion of the summer rehabbing from PF.
   London Honda sponsors a string of six races of varying lengths over the running season, beginning in February and ending in October. There is generally a 5k and a 10k distance in each race. It's pretty cool because they actually keep track of your results and award points on them. Then, at the end of the year, they tally up the points and declare winners in the various event and age categories. I'm entered in the 5k division of the Springbank Road Races.
   These are races held in Springbank Park, a very old and expansive park in the west end of London. There is a system of roadways and paths there which make it extremely inviting for runners and bicyclists.
   It is also extremely close to where I live and I have been taking advantage of this by training there, running the same route the race will be run on.
   To my likely disadvantage, however, the course has been kicking my ass. Regularly.
   It's a fairly level 5k except for about several hundred meters where it dips down and runs along the Thames River (yes, I know, how quaint that a city named London, in Canada, would also have a Thames River flowing through it...) and is bracketed by reasonably steep hills at either end. It's an 'out and back' course setup, so every hill you run down means you're gonna have to run right back up it before you're done.
   My first time out on it, I ran at a slow pace that would allow me to finish it without walking. As I remember, this took me in the 37:00 range. The next time out, I tried to run it a little faster. I did run a little faster but I got tired repeatedly and found myself walking. I walked three or four times but tried to run faster when I was running. I figured that because I'd had so many walk breaks, my time would have been way slower than my first time, when I had no walk breaks. Guess what? I was wrong!
   Including some walking breaks actually improved my time by about two full minutes. This kind of blew me away, of course, until I applied my analytical brain to it.
   It occurred to me that my slow running is really not that much faster than my brisk walking. Taking the odd walking break, however, meant that I could run faster. So, the slow running from the first attempt was more or less negated by the brisk walking in the second attempt. The second attempt also included some faster running which meant, overall, a faster time!
   Now, if that was a little hard to follow, all you really need to remember from it is that it really screwed me up! Realizing that I could take walking breaks and actually maybe lower my times suddenly gave me licence to walk almost whenever the hell I felt like it! From that point on, my times ballooned. It seemed as though every time I ran, it took me longer. What kind of race training is that?
   Early this morning, I re-visited a 5k race training plan I'd bookmarked ages ago. One of the suggestions was to plan walking breaks at specific intervals. I took this to heart. I planned a one-minute walking break after the first ten minutes. I then scheduled the next one for about the twenty minute mark. The plan was to hold myself to just the two breaks.
   It worked! I shaved about two and a half minutes off my most recent attempt and got my time back down to under 35 minutes.
   The other thing which might have factored into a better time today was the fact that, although I ran the same route as usual, I ran it in a different direction and started from a different spot.
   When I got to my normal starting location, I discovered a number of other runners milling about the area. They appeared to be part of a run club and I simply wasn't prepared to plop myself down in the middle of them and demonstrate what I perceive to be my "running rookiness". I then drove around the other side of the park and began my run there.
   For whatever reason, this made it easier. The hills seemed to pop up when I was more prepared to handle them and already knowing when the walking breaks would occur made it easier to not walk whenever the urge hit.
   The one other factor today was the fact that the park was crawling with runners. I've been to the park many times and I have never seen as many runners as I did today. They were running in all directions, at different speeds and intensities and at different ages. What this did for me was to provide as close to a race milieu as possible, without actually being in a race. People would pass me and then I would pass them in return. I could pace myself with other runners and, more than anything, I was afraid to stop in front of other "competitors". I also found myself paying more attention to form than I might normally.
   So this felt like one of those "breakthrough" days we all seem to have from time to time---just when we think we're totally off the rails, suddenly we're right back on them and chugging, full steam ahead.
    All I need to do now is convince the race organizers to start on the other side of the park...! 

Weightless Wednesday

   On Wednesday of this week, I decided to stop weighing myself on a daily basis.
   I have always been a bit of a slave to the weigh scale, climbing on it several times a day. At the minimum, I weigh myself first thing in the morning and then again close to bedtime.
   What I found lately, though, is that I already sorta know what I weigh whenever I do climb on and I'm generally only out by a pound, or maybe two at the most.

Solitary scales.

   Originally, the scales were all part of the motivation thing, something in black and white, telling me what a fantastic job I was doing with the weight loss thing. Or not...
   Occasionally the scales give me good news and normally I have an idea why I have received this vote of confidence. When they give me bad news, I am also generally aware of the wherefores.
   Part of the problem, though, is that when I receive good news, I celebrate by eating a little extra. It's not part of the plan, but I give myself permission and it just happens This, of course, is counter-productive.
   After reviewing all of this, I started to get the feeling using weigh scales, at least on a daily basis, might not be an essential part of becoming healthier. They don't seem to give me any useful information that I'm not already intrinsically aware of.
   This is what has led to "Weightless Wednesday", a day of the week I picked simply for its alliterative value. Next Wednesday, I'll hop on them again and see if there has been any difference. Between now and then, I will "go it alone" and see what the results are. I will concentrate on simply feeling healthy and not tying that to the numbers between my feet!    

A Common Thread

   As I have flitted about from running blog to running blog the last few weeks, it's slowly become apparent to me that there are concurrent themes at play in almost all of them. To me, there is one theme that seems central.
  
We hurt.
   
We may or may not be hurting right now, or we may remember a hurt which we cannot psychologically quite shake, or we may be terrified of it hurting again in the not-too-distant future.

   Even if there is no actual, diagnosable injury with which we must deal,the very act of engaging in this activity will eventually lead pain our way. We start each run knowing it is coming and almost knowing when.
   I am so used to weaving my own painful tale of woe and following, with interest and concern, other peoples' similar tales that the novelty of what we do gets sometimes lost.
   How many other endeavours worthy of blogdom, apart from maybe medical or other sports, have actual physical pain as such an interwoven thread? I have friends who write music and knitting blogs and there is no talk of pain. Not too many arts or business blogs deal with it, either.
   Not only do we all seem to have physical pain as some kind of visitor now and again, we also find that running can numb or relieve some of the emotional or psychological aches which may have beset us. How many times do we read that running got one of us through a difficult or traumatic period in their lives?

   Yesterday, at the end of my run, I was totally exhausted. My lungs hurt and my knees and legs ached. Crossing my chosen finish line, I might well have collapsed, were I not on pavement. All this to simply run about thirty seconds faster than the last time. Tomorrow, I know that to run even a few seconds faster, the pain will be at the very least the same, if not even worse.
   And I will happily set out.
  
  
  

BodyFlow (or how my body fled)

   One of the benefits of recently joining Goodlife Fitness was the ability to take part in being orientated to the different fitness classes they run there.
   One of these classes is called BodyFlow.

Looks easy, doesn't it?

   BodyFlow is a one-hour class involving a combination of yoga, tai-chi and pilates. It is also karma's way of getting back at you for anything bad you may ever have done!
   Before attending my first BodyFlow class, my initial few visits to the gym consisted of getting together with a trainer and having him put me through my paces on all the machines they had there. The man worked me hard, made muscles hurt in places I didn't know contained actual muscle and, generally, wore me out.
   The sweet little, white-haired, smooth and soothe-talking lady who ran the first BodyFlow class I attended, however, kicked my ass from here to there and back again!
   There were about 25 to 30 of us who took this class and out of that many, Doralyn and I and one other lady were the only "newbies". We were surrounded mainly by lithe-bodied young(er) females, all of whom knew the poses and routines and were able to follow them flawlessly. Doralyn is pretty flexible and kind of in to the whole yoga thing and she didn't have a problem. I, however, was totally lost.
   It would take me an extra twenty seconds to force myself into an approximation of the position the rest of the class went into effortlessly. Then, having finally achieved this, I would take a quick peek at the instructor only to find out she and the class had already moved on to the next position. People were flipping from one position to another without seeming to elevate from the mat while I often had to stand all the way up, turn around and force myself back down again. Real horror show.

I could do this.

   There was one other guy there who looked like he might be in his forties and he wasn't having the easiest of times either. At one point the both of us found ourselves in a standing (while everyone else was on their mat) position at the same time. I kind of looked around, saw him, and all of the sudden had this hey bud, wanna go somewhere for a beer? thought wander through my head. Sadly, though, my telepathic powers seem to be lacking when I need them the most.
   There were a couple of positions that I would really need to fall off a ladder and get myself wedged in the bushes to even come close to duplicating. I also actually planked for the first time. I'd heard about planking and it seemed pretty easy so when the sweet little lady announced that this was what we were going to do, I thought finally, piece of cake. I got myself into the plank position and it was easy. And then the lady asked us...to do stuff! Like wave your arms around, rotate your legs, reach behind you. Cruel, medieval stuff!


This...not so much.

   At the end of all that, I'm pretty well face down on the mat and realized that I was engaged in my own little bodyflow---like right off my forehead, down the bridge of my nose and then drip---right onto the mat. In torrents. I turned to Doralyn and mouthed a two-word expletive involving religious procreation. She just giggled.
   BodyFlow is an awesome workout, mark my words. The following day I felt pretty good. Until I laughed. Then my abs let me know just how good a workout BodyFlow really is!
  
  

Me and my damn Virtual Partner

   In my last post (which seems like ages ago) I made mention of negative splits, as I had just found out what they actually were and what the concept was behind them.
   I then decided that I would attempt to utilize them and set out last week on a 5k run. I have a Garmin and thought that I would use it to help me co-ordinate these splits.
   Well, having a Garmin and knowing how to properly use a Garmin are two radically different things. I ran the first k at a relatively slow (even for me) pace and then attempted to reset the Garmin. I thought I'd done this but at the end of my second k, I discovered I'd only just paused the Garmin and had no real idea where the hell I was for a time anymore. This pretty well totally discombobulated me and the rest of the run was more or less a washout.
   The next time I got out, I got the idea of using the Virtual Partner feature on the Garmin to assist me with this. My brilliant plan was to set a target pace for 5k, let my VP get slightly ahead of me, catch up to him by about halfway and then blow past him in the home stretch.

Sort of the opposite of what MY Garmin looked like!

   So we set off together, my VP and I, and he very slowly pulled away. This was the plan so this was not a problem. From looking at the screen, it looked like he was only about ten yards ahead of me at the most, almost like I could reach out and tap him on the shoulder if I wanted.
   By about the halfway point, he was pretty close to the edge of the screen so this where I picked up the pace a touch.
   And so, apparently, did he.
   That was pretty well the last I saw of my VP, the bastard obviously had his own nefarious little plan and went about putting it into play. Seeing as how he was now off the edge of the screen, never to be seen again, I have no idea whether he cheated, took a shortcut, hopped on a bike or maybe even had a friend pick him up in a car. All I really know is that, the next time, I'm not letting him out of my sight!