Three Things Thursday: The Snowshoe Edition

1.  I have discovered a new love this winter:  SNOWSHOEING!  Though I bought my trail pass for the cross-country trail network near town, I have not used it once because I've been too busy using my snowshoes.

2.  A bit of careful planning and creativity in meeting design allowed for a work day spent snowshoeing on Tuesday.  We headed towards Wells and then started going up, up and up.

There was a LOT of snow!

The trail markers were hard to find.

But we made it (almost) to the top!  My iPhone camera does not do the view justice, but we had a view of a snow covered lake and snow capped mountains under a brilliant blue sky.

I wish I had a photo of us actually climbing up - it was ridiculously steep, and I had at least one moment of fear that I was going to cause an avalanche (I think there were too many trees, but I want to learn more about this before I climb another mountain in the snow). 

3.  Did you know that you can burn 420 - 1000 calories in an hour of snowshoeing?  The extra effort of the snow, doubles the calories burned for walking the same distance.  It is great cross-training because you are using all of your muscle groups in your legs, plus your core for balance.  There are more good facts at http://tubbssnowshoes.com.

Have you tried snowshoeing?  Did you wear the big, old style rackets, or the new streamlined ones?  Did you love it or hate it?

Monday Mindset

My 12 week training plan for the BMO Vancouver Marathon starts today!  Though I try to start each week with a general idea of when I want to run and for how far, I'm excited to be back on a more long term plan with a goal at the end.  This is the same race I was training for when I first started my blog two years ago, and I took some time out this morning to look back at my calendar from 2010.

I remember sitting down to write these monthly goals and putting them into my agenda:

In some ways, I feel like I'm back at square one with my new training plan.  When I set these goals in February 2010, I was coming back after an extended break from running.  In fact, I had not run at all since running my first half marathon in October 2009.  I truly felt that I was starting from scratch and though it was my second half, it was my first time following a real plan.  I also had my eye on a fall marathon.  And here I am again.  With this current training plan, I am again starting back at training after a rather erratic schedule with a heavy emphasis on easy, 5K runs.  Remember when I called my most recent 5 mile run, "long"?  Still, I know I've come a long way since then.  I've run two marathons since 2010 and 3 more half marathons.  I know I could build to longer runs faster if I wanted to, but will build slowly because I've learned a lot about injuries from reading your blogs and personal experience.  I've also built up my wardrobe of running clothes and no longer use a day below 0*C as an excuse not to run.  Reading my posts from February 2010, I have to laugh at myself, but in a good way. 

I also have to laugh at myself for today's running ensemble:

One running jacket was badly in need of a wash, the other got left behind on my work travels last week.  All other long sleeves were in the laundry, and so I ventured out in red and pink!  Happy Valentine's Day!

Three Things Thursday

3 x 5K runs this week:

Run 1:  Tuesday, I headed out to do a 5K loop.  The iPhone said it was -10C, but I am sure it was colder.  My body was warm, but my face was freezing!  Luckily, I had on a neck warmer that I could pull up over my nose and a toque I could pull down over my ears.  Unluckily, the sun came out literally as soon as I finished my run.  :P

Run 2:  Here's how I know I'm committed to getting back on track for realsies:  I had a meeting 3.5 hours away at 11:00 am yesterday.  Not wanting to go out in the dark and freezing cold at 6:30am, I showered and straightened my hair that night before, packed my bag, and went to my meeting with my running clothes sitting beside me on the car seat, changed immediately after the meeting and went for a run before getting lunch.  It was a beautiful day in Vanderhoof, and I let myself get faster with each km.

Run 3:  During Run 1 and Run 2, I was wearing trail shoes to give extra grip on the snow and ice and was feeling a weird ache in the ball of my foot during and after each run.  Today, I tried running in my normal shoes on the treadmill at the gym.  There's still a strange feeling there, but not as bad.  It almost feels like it's bruised, so I'm going to take a rest day and then do my "long" run on the treadmill on Saturday because I think it might be a shoe issue.

Food Journal Check In

In January, I signed up for Amanda's Food Journal Challenge.

I admit, I did not complete my journal every day.  Still, I did become more aware of what I was eating and I made a big realization:

I have been completely kidding myself.

I was thinking that I was a fairly healthy eater.  Yes, I know I enjoy a treat from time to time, but generally, I thought, I was doing pretty good.  Then I started writing it all down and I realized that I'm eating far more convenience foods than I thought and not nearly as many fruits and veggies as I was giving myself credit for.  Yes, I travelled for work in January, but I travel every month, so that is no excuse.  I'm simply not eating as well as I should be want to be.

This month, I'm continuing my food journal, and there are a few things that I want to see:

• fruit every day
• at least 5 salads a week
• meat 3 days/week or less
• no repeated dinners for a month
• no more dinners from a box!  (when did that become ok?)
• water, water, water.

It's pretty simple, and it's what I was telling myself I was doing before, but clearly wasn't.  This month I want to see if I can stick to it.  There are some other changes I'd like to make, but I'm taking this one step at a time.  Wish me luck!

Monday Mindset

I feel a lot better this Monday than I did last Monday.  Last Monday, I was throwing up and feeling disgusting.  I was feeling off my game from not enough working out and too much junk food.  This Monday I'm feeling like I'm getting back on track.

After recouperating Tuesday and finally getting some solid food down on Wednesday, I got out for two runs last week, and capped off the weekend with some snowshoeing with the BF.  The trails were pristine, the snow was light and powdery and there was some crunchy stuff a couple of inches down so it wasn't too hard going.  The BF was tired from 6 days of work, so this was a shorter hike at just 90 minutes, but a beautiful day to be outside!

This week, I am feeling motivated and ready to run, but also tired and getting out of bed was tough this morning.  I have (re)developed a nasty habit of staying up late watching tv, and this week am making it a goal to get to bed by 10:30 to get my sleep patterns back on track along with my running and eating.  It all goes together...

"Long" Run and February Goals

Today's run was my longest run since July.  Eek!  Regardless of the fact that it wasn't all that long, it still felt good to go out and do something more than 5 K.

My plan was to run 8K or 50 minutes, whichever came first.  I didn't wear my Garmin, but I was running a familiar route and didn't want to worry about pace.

The first couple of kms ticked by and before I knew it, I was half done.  I was definitely over-dressed and warm, but I was suprised how good I was feeling at this point, and even more surprised when I looked at my watch at 5K and realized I was keeping a 6:00 min/km pace.  I thought I was going much slower!  After about the 6K point, my legs started getting tired, and I worked hard not to feel pathetic.  I know runs of this distance will get easy again, and will no longer be considered "long" soon enough.  I just slowed down, and kept moving, to the next tree, to the next driveway, to the next stop sign, to the end of the song.  Before I knew it, I'd passed the 8K point and hit 52 minutes of running.

The run had been on and off of snow so I stretched out my calves really well when I got home, did some push ups to work towards the 100x challenge, and that was that!

This month, I just want more runs like that!  I've made a training plan for the 1/2 in May, and I just want to stick to that this month.

Food wise, I have a goal to not repeat any dinners this month.  I'm going to keep going with the food journal I started last month (post coming).

Mind-wise, I want to finish my current book and get onto another.

And finally, I just want to keep my work hours in check!

January Recap

Number of running days:  6

Number of cross training days:  2 (snowshoeing!)

Number of yoga days:  0

Number of days below -35*C/-31*F:  3

Number of days below -20*C/-4*F: 2

Number of days I couldn't get my car out of the driveway due to snow:  2

Number of days I was sick and in bed:  2

Number of planned rest days:  6

Actual rest days:  23 (Did I turn into a sloth?)

Books read:  1

Number of training plans I screwed up because I read the calendar wrong:  1

So, January started off as a great month.  I had a 4 day running streak to kick things off, and kept going into the second week, but then - nada.

There were 3 days where I just don't have the gear to run in temperatures that cold, and 2 more days where I could have run, but it would not have been comfortable, and 2 more days where I legitimately could not get out of the door because of snow, and 2 more days where I had my head in the toilet.  That leaves 14 days where I could have been doing something, but did nothing.  Even on those cold, cold days, I could have put on a DVD, or done some yoga, or something.  Lame.  I was lame in January.

I was signed up for 4 challenges, and that didn't even give me a kick in the pants.  I fell far short of the 100km challenge, with a whopping 28K for the month.  I came no where near working out every day (see above), and though I suppose my last few days of the HBBC challenge were a success since all of my running came at the beginning of the month, I stopped tracking points.  I even slacked off in the food journal challenge.  What the heck!? 

Oh ya, and last week I noticed that there are fewer weeks to that half marathon than I thought.  Somehow, when putting my training plan on my calendar, I missed 4 weeks.  I thought I was building up to training and would get started in mid-February.  I guess I'm doing a 12 week training plan instead of 16 weeks.  So not only am I lame, and a challenge slacker, I've also lost my ability to do simple math.  Poop.

Luckily, I was also working on a few other things this month to keep from feeling like a total failure:

Work/Life Balance
This is one area that I feel better about.  I took 2 Fridays off this month and have another one tracked on my calendar to be taken soon to make up for time worked.  I also made a hair appointment on a Tuesday morning to make up for a Thursday evening spent working, and ate my lunch away from my desk on several days for a mid-day break (since I wasn't running).  This makes me feel better about work in general and I know I need to keep this up.

Mind:
I finished my book - Gold Diggers, by Charlotte Gray.  It was a really interesting look at the Klondike Gold Rush told through the stories of 6 real life "characters" who made their way to Dawson City in 1896-98.  As Canadians, we are often think our history is boring - but there are some hidden gems in the tales of our past!  I finished it on my way home from Whitehorse, and am part way through my next book.

Earth:
I have to admit, I did not walk to the store from home once this month as I'd planned.  I did get myself better organized and did not need to make multiple trips out, and when going into town, parked once and then walked to the down town grocery store when I did need extra items, so I feel like this counts!

Running and exercise-wise, I did not do well in January, but I'm not going to dwell on it.  I got over the end of my flu yesterday and celebrated Groundhog Day with a run today.  Goals for February are coming up!