#runnb

Before I tell you the photo is of my friend Joy Durdan, RunNB Inspirational Person of the Year with her Super Series Age Group Award and yours truly with mine. What a fun night we had. 

So on to the training.

Monday – I had a day off as I was tired after the trip to Tracadie.

Tuesday – I did the 8 km that I should have done on Monday, 8.2 km to be exact in 44:13. The route was down King William from the store and back.

Wednesday – Interval day but this week it was 2 x mile repeats. Michael and Dylan (our youngest whippet) offered to do these with me. If only I was as fast as Dylan. He just seems to be strolling down the road and yet he is going much faster than I ever could. I did my work out on King William Road. 2 km jog warm up, some dynamic stretches, 3 x 50 meter strides, 2 x mile repeats, 2 km cool down jog. It was a tad windy out there but it is definitely the flattest route nearby for intervals. Total distance was 9 km

Friday – 8 km easy pace. The route went from the store down to near Gault Road and back. 8.01 km in a time of 43:59

Sunday was my long run which this week was 14 km. I did this with Cindy, Sue and Michael. We went from the store down to Manawagonish Road and turned at 7 km. My ankle was very painful on the second half but I got her done. Many thanks to my friends for keeping me company. It was cold and windy but no snow, yet! 14 km done in 01:21:12.

So that was the week, a total of 39.21 km. My ankle is very painful but I will just have to suck it up and get on with it. No point in whingeing if I want to do the half. I am hoping that during this week, which is a recovery week, it won’t deteriorate any more. Apart from that, I feel really fit.

What is my exciting news for the past week I hear you ask, yes you are asking, I can hear you! Well, I do have some. Cindy, Sue, Michael and I booked our flights for Ireland. We leave next August for the Dingle Marathon weekend. Irelands most scenic. How exciting is that?

That’s all for this week.

The start of November also brought the start of Half Marathon training. How did that come around so fast? I was obviously enjoying myself too much, as I didn’t notice it speeding up on me. I do believe it was Cindy who brought it to my attention, with great subtlety when she informed me that it was about time I started my long Sunday runs.

I decided to do a Hal Higdon training schedule as Hal was going to be the guest speaker at the Tallahassee Expo. In this schedule the long run on a Sunday isn’t a specific distance but a time. I did the advanced version which assumes that you can run (!) and have done several races and at least a couple of half marathons previously.

My first long run was on Remembrance Day, where a group of us met up to do a 13k run which included the Irving Nature Park. This is a hilly route (what route isn’t in Saint John?) and everyone set off together and then split up into smaller groups. I ran with Cindy. We stopped for the minutes silence at 11:00 and then continued on. I find this route very tough, particularly the last long hill going back up to the car park near All Creatures Veterinary but we got it done. However, it did make me think, what am I doing?

Oh yes, I remember, I am having fun!

The first long run from my training schedule was a 90 minute run on Sunday 23rd November. Cindy and I met at the Lorneville store and ran for 45 minutes from there down Manawagonish, turned around and came back. We didn’t know it at the time but this was definitely the best weather we were going to have for our long runs. It was cold and windy but sunny and mighty fine for the time of year. The going could only get tougher and it did!

The following Sunday we met up bright (Cindy) and early (me) at the store and had intended to do the same run as the previous week as my plan stated another 90 minutes. However, it was windy, well not windy, blowing a gale, well actually hurricane force winds were more like it. We managed to stay upright for the first 45 minutes and got nearly to the Irving on Manawagonish, then stupidly, we turned to run back. OMG! We ran for 5 minutes and realized we were still in the same place. I kid you not! Cindy had the common sense to say that it was ridiculous and it would take us all day to make it back to the store. We agreed to turn around and run to her house instead and then ask Sue to give us a lift back to the store. This was a great idea of Cindy’s but for some reason Sue didn’t seem to think it was. She was busy sorting out Christmas lights when we arrived at the house. The look of surprise on her face, followed by ‘what are you two doing here?’ We explained the brilliant idea. that she could interrupt her schedule and give us a lift to the Lorneville store. She was, what is the word I am looking for? I suppose ‘underwhelmed’ would be a good way of describing it but fair play she gave us a lift back to the store so we could collect our cars and carry on with the rest of our day.

We switched my plan around a bit and fitted in another 2 longs runs before I departed for my cruise so that on the cruise I could do a race pace 10K the first Sunday and a 1:45:00 the following Sunday. Only having to do one long run on the ship sounded great and it was much better than having to do two. However, our last long slow run in Saint John had been at -8c temperatures. In the gym on the ship it was +28c with absolutely no air flow. It was like running in a sauna. Now, I don’t want you to think running in a sauna is something I do frequently, in fact I have never done it and never want to, but it was how I imagine it would be. My longest run so far and I am doing it in a sauna, sorry, ship gym. After the first 5 minutes I was dripping sweat, this from someone who doesn’t normally sweat that much. 30 minutes in and I swear it was like I was running through water. Had I inadvertently run from the gym to one of the numerous pools on board? Unfortunately not, it was just sweat. After 1 hour I was starting to hallucinate, I must have been, as really positive thoughts started creeping into my head. I will give you a couple of examples.

Ridiculous positive thought number 1 – Wow this is really good training for me because even if it is really hot in Tallahassee for the half I will now, after running in a sauna, be ready for it. Jeez!

Ridiculous positive thought number 2 – Wow this will stand me in really good stead for the summer races coming up in NB. The ones where it is too hot for any sensible person to be running, like Chipman. No problem for me in 2015. After this it will seem cool. Oh my!

Luckily or unluckily the hallucinating passed and reality came rushing back 90 minutes in. Another 15 minutes to go. I tried to be positive and tell myself that it would be less than 3k and I could do that, couldn’t I? Amazingly I did. I completed 1 hour and 45 minutes running in a sauna. Woohoo!

After the wonderful cruise it was back to Saint John and running with Cindy. For my next long run instead of a sweltering +26c it was -20c and windy. That’s what you get for complaining about the heat! Still we completed the 1 hour 45 minutes and Cindy was really happy that I had returned from my cruise so that she could start doing these long, slow, freezing cold, Sunday runs again. Well, that’s the message she should have conveyed to me. Her actual message was a tad less enthusiastic as I recall.

The following week was our first 2 hour run and we decided to go out from the store to Al’s cars and then back to the store and continue on to the bottom of King William and back to the store again. All was going remarkably well until we passed Ocean Westway and got back onto King William. The 50k wind then hit us head on, which wouldn’t have been too bad, but we knew it was going to be in our faces for the next 8.75K! Oh the joys of winter running in Saint John. We love it really and as we always say. ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.’ This run was making us really strong. At least for the last 6K the wind was behind us. Good job too as my legs were like jelly that hadn’t set properly.

Our last 2 hour run was the Sunday before I set off for Florida and we did it, despite the natural synchronization of us starting out from the store and the snow starting to fall from the sky.

Training complete and time to say farewell to Cindy for a couple of months with a big thank you for getting me through the hard winter training.

On the website there is an explanation of what the Personal Achievement Award is for. It states “This award is given to a person who set out to achieve a goal that is impressive and not easily achieved without discipline and determination. The winner of this award demonstrates, through running, an accomplishment.” I have to admit I became quite emotional reading that and thinking that someone thought enough of my running accomplishments this past year to take the time to nominate me and that the committee agreed to me receiving the award.

It made me reflect back on how and why I started running and this is a brief summary.

After much persuasion from my husband, Michael Lynch, I started running in April 2010. Well, running is possibly not how it should be described as it was mainly walking! I had never had any interest whatsoever in running. I didn’t run at school and never wanted to. My main motivation to start running was to eventually be able to run with Michael and therefore spend more time with him. I found the whole process a real struggle but eventually did start to incorporate more running and less walking into my routes. Unfortunately in November 2010 I tore the muscles in my right calf so spent 4 months unable to run and found myself in March 2011 starting all over again.

My first 5k after the injury was in April 2011 at Lincoln. I finished in 33 minutes 27 seconds. Slow, but thanks to the encouragement I received throughout the race from my friend, Paulette Stoddard, I managed to get round without stopping. Progress! I ran my first 10k ever at the Airport run that May. I found it very hard and finished in just under 1 hour 2 minutes. Whilst taking part in the Super Series races I met Sue Curwin and Cindy Losier. This was a real turning point in my running as they invited me to train with them that winter. They were both much faster than me so I was very apprehensive and worried about holding them back. However, I found it much easier to run with friends (Cindy and Sue are now my really good friends) than to just run on my own. My fear of holding them back really pushed me on and made me keep going and try and get faster.

At the start of this year’s running season I was able to complete the Grande Digue 15km. I was unsure whether I would get the distance but got great encouragement during the weeks leading up to the race from Sylvio. His enthusiasm is infectious and he convinced me I would do it.

 I competed in many Super Series races this season and enjoyed them all. During the last 7 weeks of the season, I started doing interval training that was organised by Alex Coffin. The group was diverse with young and old, fast and less fast, yet Alex organised it all so well that we all loved it and felt a real camaraderie. The faster runners cheered on the less fast which really encouraged us to improve. I had never done this type of training before but it helped me to kick on and improve again.

I love Whitney Houston’s song ‘One Moment in Time’ and often sing it at full blast when I have the top down in my Miata on a sunny day. (One really big reason why you should all be grateful for the snow!) I am glad to say that I have had several of those moments when running in 2012.

To sum up, this year I have knocked 10 minutes off my April 2011 5k time, finishing in 23:38 in Moncton recently. My last 10k was at PEI where I did a new PB of 47:33 so knocking 15 minutes off my airport 2011 time. I am glad I have been able to improve my times and become a better runner. However, the most important thing has been that I have met so many lovely people whilst competing in RunNB races, many are now good friends. I have also been able to explore many parts of this beautiful Province of New Brunswick that I am proud to call home.