Running – Page 2 – The SMO's stories

Biking, Kids, Racing, Running, Triathlon

March Break Musings

March 21, 2014 Christine Cogger

It’s March Break in this part of the world. 2 weeks. 16 days, actually. I’m not entirely sure why the school board feels this is a good idea, but they do. Apparently, there’s an annual survey that goes out to parents asking us if we want this extended break. Interestingly, I’ve never 1) seen said survey and 2) met a parent who has ticked the “hell yeah I want my kids home for 2 weeks in the middle of winter while I scramble for childcare and overpriced camps!” box.

Conspiracy? I think not.

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Where’s the damn plane?!

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I gave up wine and chocolate for Lent this year. Clearly, I’d forgotten that Lent coincides with the aforementioned 16 day break.

#schedulefail

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44.

That’s the numbers of days left till I dip my toe/jump in head first to my first triathlon in a hell of a long time.

Sidebar: if it’s been that long, can I still call myself a triathlete? Discuss.

I am a combination of excited, apprehensive, confident and terrified. It’s fun, really!

Training is going well, though not without its ups and downs. My shoulder continues to annoy the crap out of me most days. Somedays I feel like I am a little rocket ship, others I feel like a super sloth. Motivation drives me some days, other days it totally evades me (like when it’s raining and grey and oh look! squirrel!) I get distracted easily.

I’m back home after a few days at UnCamp with Lizzie (and Henry). We failed miserably in our attempts at Tweeting and Selfie-ing our progress. We have a lot to learn in that department of professional triathlete-dom. If you want to know what training camps should really be like, do yourself a favour and read her latest post on the topic.

Our own camp went well.

I didn’t cry into my goggles.
The coach on the pool deck said “Wow, that’s fast!” to me (let’s just gloss over the fact that she was referencing my speed compared the grandma in my lane. I’ll take it).
I made silly nutrition choices (who needs calories when you have sunshine and air!)
We rode into wind and up and down hills. It was fun to tour all the homes in West Vancouver that I could never afford.
I remembered how much I like to ride outside.
I chased Lizzie’s bum at running intervals.
We earned that damn beer and burger.

I got that giddy feeling you get when you finish a hard workout and you can’t quite believe you did it. I missed that feeling. Welcome back, fitness. Been a while.

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Anyone have any must-sees/dos/stops between Vancouver and St-George, Utah?

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In kid news, Will turned 8. Rory lost teeth. Anja skied the Blackcomb Glacier. Average month, really.

“I’m ronery… so ronery”… Name that TV show!

Training camp selfie. Why do I have so many chins?

Racing, Running

Kaboom!

February 18, 2014 Christine Cogger

2 years ago, when I ran the Vancouver First Half, I’d made a prediction to anyone who’d listen: I was either going to run a PR or I was going to explode trying.

That time, I succeeded. I ran an 8 minute PR and was super happy with how the day had gone.

This year, I made a similar prediction – though this time, it was mostly to myself. I wasn’t as confident in my fitness, but I figured it was worth a shot.

See? I had big plans.

However, did you hear that loud BOOM right around 9:50 AM PST?

Well, that was me, blowing sky high just past the 15k mark. One minute I was valiantly tethered to Liz’s butt and the next, Liz’s butt left me in the dust and my butt sat itself on the pavement.

Ok, so maybe it wasn't this dramatic. — Ok, so maybe it wasn’t this dramatic.

Ah well. You win some, you lose some. Others you make it partway like you wanted to then stumble home for the rest. Then you go for coffee.

Nevertheless, here’s some fun tidbits from the race.

The Good:

– I didn’t quit. Never before have I wanted to DNF from the word GO! like that before. So I can say I won that mental battle. You know when you know that it’s just not going to happen? Yeah.

– It was sunny. The weatherman had predicted this:

Maybe you can’t tell that there’s a windy monsoon happening on my head?

– My stomach remained intact.

– My brothers and I were able to hang out for coffee at the finish line. With wee Finn!

– Liz is running very, very well.

The Bad:

– I sat down on the road in the middle of a half-marathon. Who does that?! Me, apparently.

– I regret not wearing at least one earphone of music to distract me from my internal monologue which went something like this:

:30s in

“Uh Oh.”

1m45s in

“Oh Canada, our home and native land…” (on repeat)

“Hey, it’s warmer in Sochi than it is here”.

“How in God’s name is that person in a puffy coat not dying?”

“Boat.”

“Hill.”

“Bridge.”

“Liz is skinny.”

“What time is it?”

1h00 in

“Stop.”

“Don’t stop.”

“Stop.”

“Don’t stop”

(repeat loop endlessly)

1h30 in

*weeps internally*

And so on.

In the end, I finished, my time was ok and a few hours later, nothing hurt except for a blister. All’s well that ends well, I suppose. There’s some work to be done and rookie mistakes not to repeat.

I don’t think this is what my physio had in mind when she says I need to work on my butt.

I was granted a massive reality check that afternoon when I spent the afternoon in the hospital with a friend who’d undergone her 3rd knee replacement surgery in 6 years. I’ll quit my whining henceforth.

Onwards!

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Edited:

Thanks to a snowstorm that shut the highway home till past my bedtime, I was able to spend Monday morning like this.

Mondays never look like this and it's awesome. — Mondays never look like this and it’s awesome.

Biking, Racing, Running, Triathlon

Laki.

November 20, 2013 Christine Cogger

Laki means lucky in Hawaiian.

And that’s what I am. Lucky. And a bit spoiled. But I can certainly appreciate it, and will never take this kind of thing for granted – ever.

This week, I’m in Maui with Liz and her family. I came for a mental break and I have sun, my bike, good friends, surrogate parents, a baby to squish and books. What more can I ask for?

Poolside morning coffee? Ok, why not.

I know this is a holiday, but somehow I feel a teeny bit less guilty if I call it a triathlon training camp (or as Lizzie and I are calling it, Ground Zero 2014). It feels good to get back on my bike – especially when my bike isn’t going nowhere in my dark garage; to run and to really sweat, and to contemplate swimming (I’m not cleared to properly swim yet. It’ll come). Look out, St-George, you might not be an epic fail after all…

Coffee by the pool courtesy Matt the barista

Training buddies! Avert your eyes from my pastiness

Kids, Running

I don’t get it.

November 13, 2013November 14, 2013 Christine Cogger

I’m the first to admit that I love running with my kids. Sure, the pace is different than what I am used to but running with my 7 year old on the trails is just really fun. I let him set the pace, we stop a lot and we chat about the most random things (usually: Lego). Both boys have each run a 5K. And by run, I mean run/walk/zigzag/play tag/stop for water and cookies, etc. They had fun (which is the primary goal) and got a ribbon at the finish line (secondary goal).

Whistler Valley 5K. There were almost always 2/3 kids in the stroller/snack transportation system

Lately, lots of headlines have been popping up about 5 year olds “setting world records” for half-marathons, 14 year olds running marathons or 6 year olds petting llamas and raising money for pro-life organizations (this one infuriated me).

Maybe I’m missing something here. Maybe these kids are just way more competitive than mine. But I have a really hard time believing that these kids do it on their own volition. 21k is a long way to go (and this leaves me wondering how much training is involved to get them to the start line). It’s a lot of pounding on little joints, bones and muscles. And let’s face it – it can be boring. Maybe these kids are more focused than mine and don’t mind the boredom. But I doubt it. I have sneaking suspicion that there’s a running version of a hard-core soccer mom or dad lurking in the background. I mean, do we really believe that a 6 year old understands what pro-life means?

For now, I think we’ll stick to playing in the forest and chasing each other through the trails.

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EDIT: Bravo, Runner’s World, bravo: http://www.runnersworld.com/fun/1-year-old-runs-marathon?page=single

Day-to-day life, Kids, Racing, Running

In the trenches

November 7, 2013 Christine Cogger

I bow down to you, full-time stay at home moms. Seriously. I’m onto day 4 and I’m exhausted. Work was so… quiet.

Don’t get me wrong: I love the extra time I get to spend with my kids. But I have never met 3 people who verbalize their every feeling quite like my kids – and in particular, the smallest one who quite literally never. ever. stops.

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This happened, and it was awesome:

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Then the next morning, this happened:

Can you see the flu starting to creep into my head? I can.

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The I got strep throat and that totally sucked.

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Then this happened:

I guess that means it’s game time.

CITS, Racing, Running

2 babies, 3 surgeries and 1 half-marathon.

October 8, 2013October 9, 2013 Christine Cogger

Nailed it.

CITS, with a few honorary members, ran the Spirit of the Shore Half Marathon on Sunday. I was going to write some big long race report but the reality is that Liz did a better job and mine can be summarized in bullet points and pictures.

Shoulder fracture? January 4^th. Knee surgery #1? January 23. Shoulder reconstruction? July 23. 6 weeks of dominating life in a sling and not running a step until mid-September. That, right there, is a good set up for a personal worst, my friends.

It's early but it sure is pretty. — It’s early but it sure is pretty.

The joys of social media allowed me to successfully farm out 3 children for sleepovers.
Pre-race meal: beer, Chinese food, wine. For the win!

She needs the extra liquid calories: this mama is still nursing.

We may or may not have been assigning terrible nick names at this point.

I chose my beer based on the looks of the can.

Pulling into the parking lot at 7:21 for a 7:30 start? You know it.

I like to give those following me something to remember me by. Also, something to read.

Someone was worried about finishing last. Did not achieve this goal. — Someone was worried about finishing last. Someone did not come close to finishing last.

Quoted at km 9: “God, I’m bored”.
Internal quote at km 15: “Maybe I should have done a real long run before this race.”

There may or may not have been some texting on-course.

We looked damn good.

It was sunny. Sunny as in “Ow, my eyes are burning I can’t see anything” sunny. And it was awesome.
Great course, fun atmosphere, good post-race food. Sign up for next year, people.

PWs all 'round, baby! — PWs all ’round, baby!

I now very much appreciate the fitness I had last summer and can now admit that running a half slowly, undertrained and under-fueled isn’t as magical as it sounds. But I can assure you that I’ll probably do it again.

Enjoy Liz’s take, friends:

When I set my sights on the Spirit of the Shore Half Marathon back in January, I knew that I needed a big goal. It’s not every day that you achieve a new PW, but I thought it was in me and I set out to do everything I could to reach it. I’m happy to report that my new half marathon PW is 2:05, knocking my previous 1:58 from my very first half off the chart.

Training

My last big training block for the race began mid July when I could finally run 3k without stopping and posted a new PW in a 5k on July 27^th. If 5k could take me 28:31, surely I could stretch that out to a half marathon by October. Since that 5k I managed a few 9k, 12k, 15k and 18k all of which left me feeling like my insides might fall out and crawling back into bed for a few hours. Truly optimal training.

Pre-race

I have my usual race pre-race routine, but to make big leaps sometimes you have to try something new. I planned the ideal weekend to reach the starting line in the best condition I could. Starting with Chinese food and beer for dinner. Then a restful night of feeding Henry at 12:30am, 3am, 5am and finally waking at 6:37am for an optimal 20min frantic search for running tights and socks. Breakfast is also so crucial and instead of packing in useful calories like most other races I thought the half bagel and a cup of coffee would really bring my performance up to snuff.

Race

Like most halfs the first 5k were easy and fun. The next 5k were still moving fairly quickly. Then at 13k or so I looked at the pavement and it seemed to me to be soft and pillow-like and waiting for me to lie down on it. I couldn’t believe how completely exhausted I felt. If I had been running alone, I’m fairly certain I would have turned around and headed back to the car or at least the closest coffee bar. Seeing as I was with super hot pink company and didn’t want to let the team down, I kept going. Besides, the last half I started ended in my one and only DNF and that wasn’t the goal this time. Things improved after I stopped to pee and didn’t have to concentrate on not being incontinent. The last few k were actually better than the first few, but we had to be careful not to go too hard and end up with more than our 5min negative split else the goal wouldn’t have been met.

Post race

It’s like the running melted away. After a shower, some food, a far too large bowl of frozen yogurt, I was back to my usual self and ready to do it again.

Future goals

Now that I have a new PW, I’d like to keep it that way. I’m sure there could be more down the road with more matching shirts and great company, but for now I think I’ll go back to getting faster again. Just 4 months to take 30mins off my time. No problemo right?

Biking, Day-to-day life, Running, Triathlon

It’s on.

September 5, 2013 Christine Cogger

If surgery recovery were a race, I’d totally win. I got a gold star from the surgeon today at my 6 week post-op check up.

Doc: “So, did you wear your sling for six weeks?”

Me: “EVERY GODDAMN DAY!”

Doc: (…) Wow. That’s a passionate response.

She was particularly pleased with the muscle waste around my shoulder, proving that I had, in fact, done what I was told.

Bottom line? This girl has the green light to swim, bike and run again.

It’s about time.

Now if only I could do something about those wrinkles.

Day-to-day life, Racing, Running

Abs of August: A guest post

August 5, 2013 Christine Cogger

While I search for inspiration, AKA try to think about something to write about that doesn’t consist in whining about what I can’t do or the silly things my kids say, please enjoy this guest post by Lizzie.

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Are you tired of that pudgy layer around your midsection? Have you heard the whisperings of “muffin top” as you walk by in your pre baby jeans that you just can’t afford to replace? Is your washing machine broken and you need a washboard and they haven’t made a washboard in like 100 years so you need to ripple that midsection just to clean your clothes? If you were born yesterday then you need these amazing ABventions:

As seen on TV; and never, ever in real life.

Who wouldn’t be convinced that these would work? I mean, look at how happy she looks. But, seeing as we couldn’t come up with three easy payments of $19.95 plus shipping and handling the recovering member of CITS came up with [in your best stadium announcer voice]: ABS OF AUGUST.

Well, it’s really more a CORE challenge than just a way to get sexy Abs, but sometimes you just have to live with side effects. So why the big challenge? Enter the team.

–SMO: Surgery recovery and general boredom. Recently pinned in place wing removing all fun summer activities that require a working arm including running. Boo.

–Yenny: C-section recovery. Cute little Ella didn’t turn herself around in time, so out through the lower abdominals it is.

–Lizard: Regular pregnancy recovery. A little bit of Diastasis Recti, core weakness, general flabbyness and a refusal to purchase new jeans for post baby hips.

-Laura: general core strength for long distance running

We are all runners and enjoy being active, so we know that a strong core is the key to performance and injury prevention. So here we go, 30 days of about 10-15mins of core each day. We have all taken before pictures too, but will most likely only post them once noticeable changes have been made.

So what are we doing? Nothing revolutionary. We didn’t go out and spend $150 on a TRX (although I’d kinda like one). Just your everyday core regime:

-planks

-v-sits

-heel drops

-twists

-hip raises

-etc.

modified for one arm, post c-section and general laziness as necessary.

(Editor’s note: ever try a one-arm plank? I’ve topped out at 15 shaky, huffy-puffy seconds. It isn’t pretty).

Will it work? No idea, but along with the four of us keeping each other honest there’s the added motivation of first person to miss a day owes the other three wine.

With any luck by September we’ll be stable around the middle, ready to get back to some serious running training and looking half decent on the pool deck. With a lot of luck, we’ll be looking like this and running 1:20 halfs.

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And here’s the best part. We’re taking weekly pics. Whether or not we get brave enough to post remains to be seen.

We’re still looking for joiners… If you’re in – just remember the bottle of wine rule.

Racing, Running, weekend, Whistler

You win some, you lose some…

June 24, 2013 Christine Cogger

And then there’s Comfortably Numb 2013: The Death March.

Earlier in the week, I signed up to run Comfy Numb as a last minute replacement to the Test of Metal. I hadn’t run this race in probably 6 years, so I was looking forward to re-visiting it and besting my not-so-fast times from previous years.

Never one to shy away from looking ridiculous.

I’d had some good runs leading up to it, and was feeling happy and relaxed about doing it. I had no goals per se, just go out and enjoy.

Race morning I woke up a little tired but nothing out of the ordinary. Ate some breakfast, grabbed a coffee, watched some cartoons and was on my way.

3, 2, 1 Go! And we’re off. The race starts straight uphill, but I like to climb so no worries there. I settled into a nice little train of people for about the first 6K. Once we crossed the bridge (or as I like to think of it, the point of no return) I started to feel little off. No big deal, I thought, this happens all the time. I drank a bit, ate something and slowed a bit.

Then the doubts started creeping in. I mentally looked back on what I’d consumed the day before, wondering if that was the cause of my discomfort. I couldn’t get into a rhythm and for the first time in about 8 years, I really, really wanted to quit.

This was my mental image of myself between kilometers 6-10.

BUT. That’s the thing about Comfortably Numb. It’s a 25k point-to-point trail and at this part of the trail, I figured it would take me as long to turn around as it would to keep going (oh hello, terrible race math. Thanks for nothing.)

Luckily for me and unluckily for her, Marie-Anne had sprained her ankle at I caught up to her at about 11k (I know this because that’s about when I turned off Strava because seriously? I didn’t want to know anymore). And that was pretty much the last run step I took as things went rapidly downhill from there for me.

Thankfully, Marie-Anne stayed by my side as my stomach turned itself inside out in a variety of disgusting ways for the next 14K of misery. We chatted, commiserated, and looked forward to seeing that finish arch… 5 hours after we started. Never in a million years would I have ever guessed the two of us would tie for DFL at a race.

Got myself to the clinic, and 3 litres of IV fluids + heavy doses of Gravol + 12 hours of sleep means I finally feel human again. My eyes are swollen but the upside is I don’t have any blisters and my legs don’t hurt. There’s always an upside, right?

My ever-lasting gratitude to:

My in-laws for taking control of the situation at home and thus allowing me to care for myself.

Marie-Anne for staying with me. If not, chances are I’d still be out there, sleeping under a tree with my race number as a blankie.

Jenny + Liz for encouraging me via text and checking up on me.

Bob for waiting for us.

Chris Colpitts and crew for not taking down the finish arch till we stumbled under it.

The staff at the Emerg in Pemberton for taking care of me and not making fun of me. Why is it that when I’m sick it’s always super-hot-doctor guy on duty?

Family, Kids, Pemberton, Racing, Running, weekend, Whistler

Monday wrap

June 17, 2013 Christine Cogger

I’m starting to understand more and more what people mean when they say that weekends go by too weekly. Seriously, how does that happen? One minute it’s Friday night and I’m relishing 48 hours off and the next I’m back to making school lunches.

My grand plans to return to the Test of Metal this past weekend were foiled by injury and babysitting costs. So on to plan B we went… The Whistler Valley Trail Run. The boys both promised they’d run the whole thing. Will kept his word. Rory, however, not so much. Pushing 75 pounds of kids through the trails is the same as running 10k, right? Right.

Anja rounded off the team effort with the Teddy Bear trot. No dress this time, I don’t know what got into her.

(Editor’s note: Why don’t more people do this run? Cost? Location? Timing? It could be so good and yet…)

Sunday I celebrated Father’s Day by sleeping in till 7:30 and then treating myself to a 2h solo trail run. That was pretty much perfection right there.

Later that afternoon we tackled the trails for some kid mountain biking. We’re working on our “descending and cornering”. Also known as “slow down and watch where you’re going or you’ll give your mother a heart attack”

(Editor’s note: to the woman who snarled at us on Happy Trail because our kids were “in her way”: trail karma will get you and it will take you down. If not, I will, next time you do that.)

Phew, I feel better already.

Next up: a trail race without kids, Comfortably Numb. My body has blocked out the pain from the last time I did it, let’s see how quickly those memories come flooding back next weekend.