Race Report: Garfield Fun Run KL!

The view as we drive
to the start line!

Joy here...After "going rogue" on my training and claiming that I wasn't going to do any races for a while and just take it easy with my training, I suddenly found myself at the start line of a 5km running race under a blue sky and hot afternoon sun.

Now let's back up a bit.  I've been in Kuala Lumpur for two weeks, and during that time, I've not been able to run or train or do anything more active than lift my beer to my lips. It's been the holiday season, with much work to do and people to see and fun to have and life to live.  And, well, for the past two weeks, I've been doing that.

But then my former trainers and friends from Bodytech here in Malaysia told me that they had signed up for a "fun run" and I should join and run with them.

I figured I had nothing to lose, so I got to the start line at 4 o'clock on Boxing Day under a blazing hot sun and +35C temperatures.  We were all sweating as we posed for pictures with Garfield, as this was a branded "Garfield Run," complete with mascots and everything!

Odie and Garfield show up to cheer us on!

We trundled over to the start line, smelly bodies, jostling, shouting, and cheering all around us, and we waited for the countdown.

As soon as we were off, I left my friends behind and started weaving and wending my way through the thousands of yellow-clad Garfield runners until I got a bit of space and could run at my own speed.  To be clear, that speed was pretty darn slow.  I think I reached the first km mark after 7 minutes...not much faster than walking!

But then, despite the heat and despite my time off, I was feeling just fine.  I didn't have any weird aches and pains, and I felt like I could just take it easy and have a comfortable run.

Me and my friends at the start line!

Granted, it was hotter and hillier than I was used to; granted it was one day after Christmas celebrations (complete with wine); granted I'm out of shape after "going rogue," etc. etc. but given all those caveats, I felt fine.

I trundled through the second and third kilometre, but then the hot sun of the afternoon was unrelenting and the road was going upwards, and I felt myself walking.  I gave myself about 60 sec. of walking, and then up I started again feeling like I might actually finish the race in under 30 minutes, which I really didn't think I could do.

So I trundled along, feeling good, and then I turned a corner and the finish line was mere metres away.  I ran my little heart out for those last 300m or so, knowing that I could have run a lot faster had I known I was so close to the end.

All the keen runners in their Garfield tops!

I finished in 27:43, just slightly slower than my last fun run that I ran just over 24 hours after returning to Canada from Malaysia one October.

See ya later #GarfieldRunKL; I might be back
next year!

I waited under the shade of a palm tree as I awaited my friends at the finish line, and then amidst high fives and cold drinks we meandered back to the car, feeling satisfied and proud of ourselves for getting out there and running this fun and well organized #GarfieldRunKL!

So all in all, the lesson that I've learned is that in saying I'd "go rogue" and not race has proven the opposite.  Just when I said I wouldn't sign up for any more races, I found myself in the midst of a race.

And you know what?  I wouldn't have it any other way.

Life is more interesting when it unfolds in a way that isn't planned!

So as 2015 comes to its close, I think I'm going to do my best to remember that life lesson and not plan things but just roll with life as it comes, mascots and all!

Over and out,
Joy

Race Stats:
Ran for a total of 5km in 27:43min for a pace of 5:33min/km.

Going Rogue on my Training!

Joy here...Okay, so I signed up for the Toronto half marathon the weekend of October 18th.  And I'll cut to the end of the story here:  I didn't do the race.

Leading up to October I've just been so, darned busy.  A recent article, though, says that we're not as time-starved as we think; it says that according to one study, "The time is available to have a fulfilling career and rewarding family life," and thus, we should kind of buck up and stop thinking of ourselves as super time-starved.

So I've had to realize that I'm no more time-starved than anyone else, and probably better off than some.  And my inability to prioritize training has more to do with my failing to prioritize training than any actual, objective limits on the amount of time I could dedicate to training.

But instead of beating myself up over this inability to organize my time or prioritize properly, as is my usual wont (like when I blogged here), this time I'm just gonna own it (cue someone snapping and saying "you go girl!").

And what does it mean to "own it"?  It means that I'm just going to make a big announcement:

I'M GOING ROGUE ON MY TRAINING.

Yep, that's it.  That is all.  Sure, I'm going to run.  I've even found a squash partner for the new year.  I'm going to walk and hike, and when I get the chance I'm going to ride my bike.

But what I'm not going to do is sign myself up for races, tell myself I'm going to train, and then not be able to do it.  

I just have other priorities right now, and I'm sick of feeling bad because I just can't do all things all the time 100%.

So wish me luck...and I'm sure I'll be back!

Over and out,

Joy

USA: My Crazy Cousin, or My Thoughts on the UCI World Championships in Richmond

Joy here...Okay, I haven't blogged all summer, and we're well into fall, so instead of trying to fill in some of the gaps from the last few months, I'll just leave those as gaps and pick up where I am right now.

That's one of the lessons I've learned from training: When you miss a workout, don't try to start layering in all the missed workouts on top of new workouts, but just leave them incomplete and begin anew.

So that's what I'm doing now.  Beginning anew.

And I've decided to begin with a recap of the weekend of September 27th when The Man, myself, and a few friends headed to Richmond, Virginia to watch the UCI World Cycling Championships. Not only was it a great opportunity for those of us North Americans to get a chance to see some of the world's very best cyclists up close (a bonus that many Europeans can simply take for granted that is still a big deal to those of us on this side of the pond); but also, our friend (who just signed a World Tour Contract for next year with Canondale-Garmin - yay Mike!) was going to be racing for Team Canada.

So we bought our flights using my aeroplan points, booked a place to say using Airbnb, and headed to the States.

Rockin' the 90s LA style.

Now as a Canadian I've travelled to the US, but not as extensively as I've travelled throughout Canada or other parts of the world. I mean, I've done the typical Disney World family vacations; in my twenties I took a work trip to LA with my uncle when we both worked for the family business (and was totally weirded out that people were quicker to assume us a couple than an uncle & niece travelling together); I did a girls' holiday to Scottsdale with my besties in our twenties (where we hung out by the pool and pretended we were in a Reality TV Show, and that premise got funnier and funnier the more margaritas we drank); as an adult I've done trips to Boston and NYC to be all grown up and sophisticated and stuff; and my sister and I think it's a great idea to start doing sister trips to Miami in November to escape the "Winter is Coming" feeling in Canada.

So that's just to say that I've been to the States before.

And every time I go I am struck by a weird sense of ostranenie (остранение), the sense of defamiliarization of the familiar. Basically presenting familiar things in a way that makes them seem unfamiliar.

And that, my friends, in a nutshell is what a Canadian often feels in the USA.

UCI World Championships in Richmond

(And I suspect that Americans feel this same thing when they live, work, and travel in Canada.)

It's a strange sense of thinking that things should be familiar (except that they spell centre wrong and get rid of the letter "u" from words and things like that), but amidst all the familiarity of language and culture, I am always struck by the fact that things are not as similar as I might unthinkingly assume.

Here is a random list of some of my observations about how USA differs:

Cause, you know, not all schools are
"drug-free school zones," only the
ones with signs.

• When people say something is "urban" they don't mean "hip" or "busy," they mean "ghetto" or "crime-ridden";
• Walking as a mode of transportation engenders pity;
• Poverty and homelessness seem closely linked to race;
• Gun violence is a real thing to worry about;
• Taxis are non-existent or inefficient, but Uber is awesome;
• People can be super friendly and welcoming or super scary and frightening depending on which neighbourhood (or neighborhood) you find yourself in;
• It is a given that the way things are done in the States is the best. Period;
• Basic technological things - like mobile credit card payment and PIN machines - are surprisingly behind the times more often than not (like you still have to sign credit card slips in restaurants!);
• Public transportation is a place where crime happens;
• People really say things like "y'all" in regular conversation; and
• Obesity is real.

But given all that which seems odd, despite being familiar, there is also a charming "American-ness" that can create beautiful and genuine moments - moments of laughter and celebration, moments of connection, moments of discussion and conversation etc. - and while in Virginia for the UCI race, I was able to experience a moment of community like I had never before experienced.

USA! USA! USA!

For a large part of the race, Ben King, a local racer from Virginia was leading the race as part of a small breakaway.  We were standing on a hilly, cobbled stretch of road watching, amidst thousands upon thousands of spectators crowded by the roadsides rows thick. As the leaders of the race came into sight, these thousands of spectators began to chant:  "USA! USA! USA!"

Now normally I'd scoff at the blatant (and frightening) nationalism, or I would cynically wonder "what do they have to cheer about?" but amidst crowds of sports-loving fans under a sunny September sky cheering for a hometown boy, I couldn't help but feel a swell of emotion in my chest, a sense of warmth and earnestness, a sense of community that was uplifting and positive, and in that moment, I felt something quite wonderful about my crazy but loveable cousins to the south.

Here's to you, USA!

Over and out,

Joy

Learning to Love Running Again

Joy here...There comes a point in any athlete's life when he/she becomes what they call "burnt out." It could be physically burnt out or mentally burnt out from training.

Spring is finally here!

Now I don't actually train hard enough to get burnt out. But weirdly, I've discovered that even missing or failing planned workouts can have an effect similar to burn out.

When I don't hit a planned workout, it still hangs over my head, making me feel bad and demotivated, and weeks and months of this can have a cumulative effect.

What happened to that girl who used to run for fun?  What happened to that girl who used to dream up stories while on a run?  What happened to that girl who used to find running meditative?

I'm not sure, but she's not me these days.

I'd like to find her again.

So I'm going to take June to just focus on relearning how to enjoy running.  I'm going to get out there and run for fun.

And as I slowly run for fun, get back into the swing of running, I'll build up my distance and fitness, and then...well, then I think there just might be another half marathon in my future.

Sounds like fun!

Over and out,
Joy

Run Stats this week so far:
Saturday: 5 X hills (about 2ish minutes in total; run 200m flat for one minute and then one minute up hill and repeat)
Sunday: Sleep!
Monday: Ran for 29:01 for 5.36kms for an avg pace of 5:25min/km.
Tuesday: EssayJack soft launch (see our website for demos!!!)
Wednesday:  Ran for 28:01 for 5.08kms for an avg pace of 5:31min/km.

Race Report: Ottawa Race Weekend

Joy here...Ottawa is abuzz with activity this weekend for Race Weekend. The entire city comes alive as elite runners and regular folks lace up their shoes and head out to run in the streets of the city, and the rest of us line the streets to cheer them on.

Heading to the start line...

Usually we're in Malaysia at this time of the year, so it's pretty rare to be able to participate in the festivities, much less run in the races ourselves.

But this year I signed up for the 5km race. I'm probably as unprepared for a race as I've ever been.

"If you're consistent with your training," my coach said, "then you can aim for under 25 minutes."

Of course, I wasn't consistent with my training. As my last post makes clear, I'm not in good shape, and I'm not ready to do a running race.  But, well, race day appeared, and I had signed up to run, so, well, um, I showed up to the start line as planned.

With no other plan except a half-baked plan to aim for under 25 minutes, I headed to the start line after warming up.  There was a chill in the air, but the sweat of the bodies crammed up at the start line kept me warm (and assaulted my olfactory senses with the BO of thousands of bodies). The air horn went off, and we all started running.

Under 25 minutes, under 25 minutes,
under 25 minutes...

I knew full well that I had to keep consistent. While I may not pay attention to my coach and be consistent with my training, I have let him drill it into my head that I have to start slower than I finish, and keep my ego in check for the first half of any workout I do.  So while all the keeners at the start of the race were off like foxes fearing the braying of the hounds, I had to keep myself conservative.  I let them all pass me and tried not to take it personally.  I looked to my Garmin, but with thousands of runners all running around, with their own Garmins and devices pinging back and forth to satellites overhead, my pace wasn't showing up consistently.  One second it would say I was running 4:28min/km, then I'd look down and it would say 5:08min/km, and then 4:12min/km, and then 6:28min/km. Every 200m or so I would get a ping from my Garmin saying that each 200m was taking me around 1minute.  If that was correct, then I was on pace.  So I kind of used that as a vague gauge and just tried to run based on how things felt, but running on "feel" has never been my strong suit.

This would be my test.

I ran, sure I was slow. I ran, being passed by kids and their parents. I ran, just trying to be consistent.

I turned a corner past the halfway mark and ran past The Man and some of our friends cheering, and then I saw another friend from the running group and waved in her face (she later told me: "you looked awesome!").  And then, before I knew it, I was at the 4km mark, and just started running faster.  I started forcing my breathing to be faster and I started counting in my head...1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9...And then I saw the clock overhead at the finish line, and as my eyes began to focus, I saw 24:38...I was under 25 minutes, but I still had meters to run.

So I sped up, willing those damn legs to move faster, finishing the final 200m at a 4:26min/km pace and in 53 seconds (rather than the 5min/km and 1 minute per 200m I had averaged throughout the rest of the run).

My Garmin pinged that I had finished my 5kms, ringing the tone of completion, and I looked down to see beautiful digits:  24:52.  But then as I passed under the finishing banner I could tell that the clock ticked over the 25 minute mark.

Post-race bananas...doesn't get any better than this!

I finished and waited up for my friend's daughter (also a friend) to finish her 5km race so that we could get our post-race bananas and walk back together and meet up with her parents and The Man.

And after we high-fived and enjoyed the post-race buzz, I looked up my results and realized that even being out of shape and inconsistent with my training, I still finished in 22nd place for my age/gender (top 3%) and to 10% of the overall 5km racers.

More important than all that data, I was absolutely dead on with my pace throughout the race, and I finished faster than I started.  So all my work on this over the past year is starting to pay off, and that, well, that's motivating (which is something that I've struggled with).

Maybe it's time for me to sign up for another half marathon...

Over and out,
Joy

Run Stats:
According to my Garmin:  Ran for 5kms in 24:52 for an avg pace of 4:58min/km.
According to Sportstats Official Timing:  Ran for 5kms in 25:05 for an avg pace of 5:00min/km.

It's not about weight loss, until it is...

Joy here...One year ago at this time I was the fittest I had ever been.  We were nearing the end of 12 months based in Malaysia, and without winter and Seasonal Affective Disorder, I was able to workout consistently year round.  I felt great physically and mentally (and I say so here).

I didn't look too bad either (here I am spring 2014).

We lived in an apartment with floor to ceiling windows over looking the jungle; we were able to see our friends every week; I had access to an amazing gym and trainer around the corner from where I lived; I had a membership at another posh gym for those times when I needed a swim or a treadmill; I did great bike rides at least once a week; a tropical fruit stand was at the end of our road every day; the grocery store knew me by name and would order anything and everything I might want (including gluten free items); and, well, I was happy.

Fast forward 12 months.

We're now just coming out of what seems like the longest winter I've ever experienced. I've not been consistent with my workouts, and I've drank much more, much more regularly throughout the winter than I should have.  I have no access to a gym or trainer, and am hanging onto my running coach by the skin of my teeth.  I'm sure he thinks I'm a loser, because I miss more workouts than I actually hit.

I've said may times on this blog before that I do sport not about weight loss.  For me, sport is about feeling good, being sharp mentally, and overcoming challenges.  Sport is so much more about the mental side than the physical for me.

Looking a little different now, spring 2015.

Or at least that's always been the case.

Now I find myself, for the first time in my life, thinking about the physical more seriously, and thinking about weight loss.

You see, in the nearly 12 months since we've been back in Canada, I've gained about 12Ibs and lost pretty much all my muscle tone.

It's snuck up on me bit by bit, and as I grapple with trying to be consistent with my workouts, I also find myself having to try and lose weight too.

I truly see why the weight loss industry represents a multi-billion dollar business.  It's hard to lose weight, and you feel like crap about yourself, which makes you a perfect target for savvy marketing.

But I reminded myself that I'm supposed to be focusing on the mental side, not the physical side, right?

So mentally, my challenge right now is to overcome negativity and this hole that I've dug myself into and just move forward.  There's no magic to it, and there's no point in beating myself up over backsliding.

As Ottawa's Race Weekend descends upon us this coming weekend, and I'm going to be running a smooshy and out-of-shape 5kms, I just remind myself that you gotta start somewhere.

Here I am with my Mile2Marathon training crew in Ottawa.
Can you spot me?

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."

~ Confucius

Over and out,

Joy

Tiptoe through the Tulips

Joy here...Each May the snow has finally melted and it seems as though spring may have arrived in Ottawa, and to celebrate this annual event that no one ever really believes will come Ottawa puts on the Canadian Tulip Festival.

I'm not even kidding.  The great Canadian tulip festival.

It's happening right now.  So happening.

So, of course, being the good little Ottawan (Ottawinian?) that I am (cough, cough...sarcasm), I went out for my run and ran towards the tulips.

And, you know what?  They were actually pretty beautiful.

It is very easy for me to be down on this town.  It's small and parochial.  Its winter makes me want to kill myself and others.  I miss my friends and family.  I miss the vibe and energy of a big city.  And, well, I could keep on going and going with my oft-repeated list of the things about Ottawa that just don't really float my proverbial boat (and you can read my post about Ottawa as a celebration of mediocrity), but what I should say is that when a whole town comes out to enjoy tulips, brings their kids out to look at flowers, drives into the city from the 'burbs on a family outing to celebrate gardens, and generally gets together over the banishment of winter, even my cold and shrivelled anti-Ottawa heart has to find something pretty special in that.

As much as I wished I could diss all those people milling about the spring buds just barely beginning to open and promise so much more than cold winter, I just couldn't find it in myself to do so.

So as I ran, feeling every bit as out of shape as I am these days, I took a moment to stop and smell the tulips. To stop and enjoy the moment, and while my life isn't exactly where I'd like it to be just yet, it's moving in the right direction, and knowing that, I can give myself permission to take a breather amidst the flowers and allow myself a moment to enjoy the present.

The present with tulips.

The present with running.

The present with sunshine.

And, you know what?  That present is pretty darn good, and so as I turned around after frolicking amongst the flowers and headed home for the latter part of my run, I was feeling pretty darn good. These tulips have been gone all winter, but the festival is on, and they're putting on a good show now, and that's all that matters.

Making friends with spring!

Over and out,

Joy

Run stats:
Ran for a total of 38mins for a distance of 6.93kms at a pace of 5:29min/km.