Sunday, March 23, 2014

The post about acupuncture, a late race shirt and the oldest road race in North America

Top left: I went out for Run Club today
Bottom left: I forgot I had Adidas Response trail shoes with only 150K on them
Right: My ATB race shirt from last year.


  • Talk about forgetting stuff! When I had drinks with my old running pals last Friday, one of them mentioned acupuncture for my Morton's Neuroma.  I never thought about this before. I have since read several forums on the internet and there are some success stories. I don't know if it will actually work for me, but I'm willing to give it a try. I've pretty much exhausted every other avenue and acupuncture is covered under my work's health plan. So it certainly won't hurt. I'm going to explore this further after I run the Around the Bay (ATB) next weekend. I don't want to do anything different before the race. 
  • I got an email on Friday from the organizers of the ATB.  Apparently there is a labour disruption by truckers at the Port of Vancouver which is preventing delivery of the shirts. This means I will not be getting my shirt when I pick up my race kit next Saturday. It's not that big a deal because I never wear the race shirt on the day of the actual race. I have to earn it first. But I do like to wear my shirt for my recovery run later in the week. Oh well, I guess I'll wear last year's shirt for this year's recovery run.
  • I am beginning to get very excited about running the Bay. I only have 3 more runs before race day. Three more runs and 7 more half-assed sleeps. It's a historical year. This will mark the 120th year of the race. It's older than Boston, but Boston is the longest running marathon. I have my last half marathon (Niagara Falls Women's Half) medal hanging from my rear-view mirror. It will be nice to replace it with a commemorative ATB medal!


Some historical photos of the Around the Bay. (source)


  • This morning I went to Run Club at the Running Room. I haven't seen a lot of those runners since last spring. Probably May? I ran with Monica and Dawn. Monica was running 10K and Dawn was feeling under the weather. She'd been battling the flu all week. Dawn wasn't sure if she could do 10K, so I said I would stay with her and if she wanted to do less, that was fine. We all ran 3K together before Monica went off on her own. Dawn wasn't well and decided to walk back to the RR. I ran ahead of her for a couple of kilometers, then ran back to her to walk the rest of the way in. So my 10K was cut in half. It's all good though. The 1st rule of Run Club is you don't leave a buddy behind. And I was actually only slotted to do 6K today anyway. 
  • I may just run 10K tomorrow morning. My first appointment's not until 11am and it's in Hamilton...Hmmmmm. That would have me running 6 days in a row. BUT, BUT none of them have been long runs. This is my scale back week and I'm not sure how I'm going to fare. Three short runs is all I get? This may not be good for my therapy.
  • Yesterday I ran 7.27K. I felt like I was sluggish because my legs were getting tired. Although my legs were tired, my breathing was steady. My heart rate was up the entire time and I would think I was having a good run, then second guess my good run vibes. My form was still slightly off because I was still clumping along. So bad form and tired legs made me feel like I was dragging my ass a times. Imagine my surprise when I finished my run and saw that I ran my quickest pace ever. I have never run 6:06/K. Not even when I busted my ass last May and tried for a sub 30 minute 5K. So all my whining and moaning about the snow and ice was actually helping me because it was building up leg muscles I could use at a later time. Who knew? This means I will be running another 5K race soon. I have to get the sub 30 for sure this time. Although my legs were getting tired, I could have given more.


My best pace EVER!


  • Tomorrow night I have my second therapy appointment. It's really my first one again because I had to switch therapists and I'll have to start all over again. I got a phone call from the coordinator tonight confirming my appointment. That was a nice touch. The last therapist just called me 10 minutes before my appointment to tell me that she was going to be 10 minutes late and she ended up being 20 minutes late. Then she called in sick last week and couldn't book me again for two weeks. I just hope this therapist is more reliable.
  • Julien wants to be a YouTube star. He follows this boy on YouTube who has his own channel and he wants to be just like Evan. All I can say about Evan is he uploads a lot of videos. Like once a day. I'm not sure why I get notifications every time he does. I thought I changed that in my preferences, but I think Julien keeps adding it back. So he wanted us to do a video of YMCA as a family to upload on YouTube. I warn you right now, you will never get the 3:45 it takes to watch this video back, so proceed with caution. Our only direction was that we were not allowed to sing over him so hubby and I mouthed the words. I need to mount my phone next time. It would would be a lot less shaky then. It was a fun thing we did together. My kid is not camera shy, that's for sure! Next up? The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?). Kill me now:(