Seven Years

People ask me all of the time, "How are you able to run so much with a full time job and two young kids?"

The answer is very simple

This guy!

My husband is simply the most wonderful, the most supportive husband and father I could ask for. While we do sometimes have disagreements about how much I should be running in a week (or at a time), he usually just says, "Okay, that's fine." when I tell him that I have a run planned or that I need to get a 3 hour plus 32km run in.

He also never complains about the money I spend on shoes or races or other running gear. He totally knows how much I love this sport (which I took up seriously in 2011 at age 33) and how being able to run helps my  (bad) moods and stress levels. If I haven't had a chance to run during the work day, I'll often mention how, "I'd like to get about 6k in tonight." and he mostly pushes me out the door, taking care of washing the dishes and entertaining our boys

We've done quite a bit in our seven years of marriage, but continuing to grow our supportive partnership has been our most important task.

Happy Anniversary, Ken!

Um... 11 minute mile?

What's the deal with a 10 minute mile? Its a big thing, right? I know that if I ran one, it would mean I'd be hitting my 5k in 30 minutes goal. Anyway, I ran 4 miles in 44:16 on the treadmill tonight. That included 2 minutes of warm up walking and 1 of walking at 33 minutes. So, I am close.

So close.

Thisclose.

I should just put 30 minutes on the treadmill and let'er fly.

After this weekend, perhaps I'll do just that.

Today I spent drinking beer at the Jays game with my husband:


We sat on top of the bullpen:


and drank a few beers after enjoying a lunch of cart hot dogs. This afternoon game is a rare thing and it was great to be off work and able to enjoy it. The fact that the Jays actually won, made it even better. Then the husband went off with a friend to the fights (to watch) and the kid and I shopped and ate at McDonald's. I had zero motivation to run, but as soon as the kid went to bed at 8:30, I went down the the treadmill and kicked out my 4 mile compromise (I should have done 5, but wanted to do 3 - I didn't run this morning because I decided to clean instead). I don't know if I'll be able to get any more runs in this weekend as it is my baseball playoffs. It is a double knock-out and we finished fifth. Same as last year. Last year we ended up second place to a team that went 22-0 in the regular season and 5-0 in playoffs. This year it will be a much closer race.

I'll spend the weekend looking like this:


And loving every minute of it. Go Hurricanes!

Good luck to anyone racing this weekend!

PSA - Never run with heartburn

You know I never, ever experienced heartburn until I was pregnant. And when I was pregnant, for a long time I didn't realize that the burning in my throat was the much discussed heartburn. It wasn't until I described it in detail to my long suffering husband, that I was diagnosed. By my 41st week (oh yes, The Kid was late), I couldn't even drink water without suffering the burn.

Once I gave birth (or, if you prefer - once I had the surgery to remove The Kid from my uterus and body) and lost the 50 odd pounds gained over 10 months, I went back to my non-suffering ways and in the past 31 months have only experienced heartburn a handful of times.

Tonight was one of those times.

I met my husband at the local pub after picking up The Kid and we decided to stay there for dinner. After a craptastic accident from my potty-training 2.5 year old, I drowned my sorrow in a lovely pint of Harp and a plateful of nachos (thanks to small favours, we did have a change of underwear for The Kid - no wipes, but the husband did what he could).

After the first two sips of his third pint of the afternoon, my husband turned to me and said

I can't drive home!

No problem! I declared.

I would run back (3.5k) and pick up his car. A very good plan that 1) stopped me from having a second pint (sob), 2) ensured I got some kind of run in tonight (I DID go to Curves at lunch).

So, I headed out 45 minutes after we left the pub. 45 minutes after I got the most out of my $13 plate of nachos (jalapenos and all) and drained every last sip from my pint glass.

I ran outside wearing shorts for the first time because it was hot.

HOT.

I set a great pace and knew that I'd have no problem with the distance. I was only really worried about the heat. I took a different route than my normal 5k run which lead me through mature neighbourhoods and allowed my mind to drift and sing along with the tunes on my run list as my feet hit the sidewalk. I noticed that younger men also seem to smile and wave at runners (must wear shorts more often). I scared the crap out of an older couple walking a dog and taking up the entire sidewalk by yelling "LEFT" at them as I passed. Things were good.

Then.

Oh then.

Probably around 2.5k I started to have this BURNING feeling in my throat. I couldn't fathom what it was. I figured it was some toothpaste stuck in my throat so I took a swig of water and swallowed hard.

Nope, still burning.

Hmmm.

I did the same again, but this time I spit.

Nope.

Shit!

Its bloody heartburn!

From that point on, I used all my mental power just to make it through the last km. As I have never run this particular route, I wasn't sure where I was or how long I had to go before I got to the car, so when I rounded the corner and saw the main streets leading to the plaza with the pub, I was never more grateful.

The husband is quite happy not to have his car left in a pub parking lot all night either.

Lesson learned: Save the pubs for post sports like all normal people.

3.5k, 22 mins.

The one where life gets in the way

I set up the treadmill at 8:30 tonight to run just over 7km in an effort to gain more miles and work my way up to a 10k race sometime at the end of the summer. This was my first time back to any kind of running since the Bread and Honey 5k because last week just left so little time for running.

I couldn't get on the treadmill until that time for two reasons: 1)the kid is not going to bed as easily as he once did at 8pm, so we are allowing him to stay up until 8:30 and 2)the husband was out shopping.

With 1.8km to go, the husband came down to the basement and asked if I was almost done. I let him know that I'd be at least 10-15 mins (I had a horrid/tiring run tonight) and he gave me puppy dog eyes. He had said he'd head over to a buddy's house for a beer, so I cooled down, ran the time to 45 minutes and completed 6.1km. Not bad, not what I wanted to do either.

I have found a race that I will be doing for sure next year. The GTAA Runway Race . How cool would it be to run 5k down the runways at Pearson while fighter jets and commercial airlines are buzzing overhead? Having grown up at the edge of the airport and having spent a year there working in Customs, I must do this race next year!

Plan for the week:
Monday: Curves, Baseball (we won!)
Tuesday: 6.1km - treadmill
Wednesday: Curves
Thursday: 7km - outside!
Friday: Curves/Treadmill (I'm booked in solid meetings on Friday so I may not get Curves in)
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: 5km run with my ladies running group