Marathon training ramblings

After going through my blog I realized I haven't posted a single entry since after running the half-marathon almost 1 year ago.  So many things have changed!  After much thought and consideration I decided it was time to run the marathon.  I struggled with whether I was ready or not but decided why wait?  Life is much too short and putting off something just because you are scared or uncertain is not the way to go!  I came across this from a blog post and it summarized exactly what I was thinking:
   
   "If you’re thinking about doing it, stop.  Plenty of people think. They have dreams and ambitions and goals, and they’re beautiful… but you need to become a person who stops thinking and starts doing."  (From: http://www.nomeatathlete.com/couch-to-ironman/ an excellent read).

   I signed up for the marathon in Toronto back in February.  It is October 16, 2011.
   (This one: http://www.torontowaterfrontmarathon.com/en/index.htm)

   I started training June 20th and decided to follow an 18 week training plan found here:
http://www.marathontraining.com/marathon/metric2.html

    I thought initially the training program wasn't so bad.  The program suggested to have a solid base before starting but I thought since I had been triathlon training all winter I would be good to go.  The program went well right up until week 8 and 9.  Up until this point I had been progressing nicely and I had just finished my last long run (26km) at a reasonable pace of 6:36 min/km.  Then it hit.  I missed my long mid-week run because of soreness and overall tiredness.  Then the next long run came - 29 km.  It was awful.  I hit the wall around 23 km and couldn't run anymore.  I had tears in my eyes but no energy to cry.  I experienced the most intense feeling of thirst I have ever had.  I thought I could make it through 29 km without fluids.  Boy was I wrong.  I saw a discarded gatorade bottle on the side of the road and it took all my self-restraint from reaching down and drinking the remaining few millilitres.  I managed to do a combination of walking/running (mostly walking) and finished the 29 km in 3h32m.  The following week was a well deserved rest week and I thought I had finally put myself back together.  Boy was I wrong.  I set out for my long Sunday morning run of 32 km.  This is probably the worst run I have ever experienced in my life.  The wonderful weather network had predicted cloud and rain with a high of 24C.  I thought perfect, if my run goes a little longer the heat won't kill me.  Wrong again.  The day turned out to be HOT, HUMID, and SUNNY.  At least for this run I had learned from my previous mistakes and had bought a camelback from MEC so I could continuously drink on my run.  This worked for the first 20 km and then it happened again, it was like my energy was completely knocked out of me.  I couldn't run more than 5 mins without having to stop and walk for a good 10 mins.  My amazing pace I had maintained up to here dropped like a lead weight.  I walked/ran the remaining 12 km home.  I ended up finishing this "run" in 4h20m, my pace was 8:06 min/km.  If I wasn't so exhausted I would have been horribly upset.  I got home, showered and slept the day away.

   The following week I only managed to run 10 km.  I was exhausted.  I woke up Saturday morning (almost one week after the 32 km run) and I wanted to cry.  I didn't want to leave my bed all day, just lifting my feet out of bed felt like the end of the world.  My mum called to talk to me and I started crying uncontrollably.  This was not right - I was overtraining.  It had gotten to a point where I didn't want to eat, or sleep, and I sure as hell did not want to run, I just wanted to sit in my bed and stare at the ceiling.  Then slowly I came out of it.  I rested and ran as slow as humanly possible.  Then it was time for my next 32 km run.  I was beyond scared, the last experience had scarred me.  Would I be able to finish it? What was the point? It was a Sunday morning of a long weekend, why did I have to get up at the crack of dawn to run 4 hours when all it did was make me miserable?  It was cold and it was wet.  Why the hell was I doing this again??  Self-doubt set in and I felt frustrated with myself for feeling this way, scared I might not meet my goal, and upset that obviously I wasn't doing something right.  I felt this challenge was impossible.  Not for other people, just for me.  I had bitten off more than I could chew and it was finally catching up to me.  However that blog I had read previously had this to say:

   " I hate the word “impossible.” Hate it, hate it, hate it.

Anyone who does an Ironman needs to learn to hate that word, too. You’ll hear it a lot during your training, and it’ll sneak into your thoughts now and then, after a bad run or when you panic during your first open-water swim start."

   And somehow I throw myself out of bed that morning, geared up, mixed up my gatorade and headed out the door into the pouring rain at 6:30 am on a holiday Sunday.  I had to run on the shoulder of a dirt road and it got to the point where the sand shoulder was like quicksand.  Then it really started pouring.  I said to myself, this is it. I am stopping.  This isn't worth it.  Then something happened.  A little tiny voice inside my head said - just one more step.  Put one foot in front of the other and just DO IT.  And that's what I did.  I told myself - OK.  If it is still this bad in 30 mins then I will stop.  After 30 mins I said OK, in the next 20 mins if its this bad I will stop etc ... and this went on until my wonderful brother joined me.  Together we finished the run and with better pacing and a better mental attitude I was able to finish this run in 4h07m.  Certainly not a fast run by anybody's standards but faster than before and I had finished without feeling absolute exhaustion.  This, although a small step, was amazing progress for me.  And so it continues.  I have one more long run (this Sunday) before the mileage drops drastically into taper mode before the marathon.  I am still nervous about these long distances because your mind is amazing at playing tricks on you and telling your body it can't do it.  I saw this quote awhile back and I think it's perfect:

    "The mind tells the body it can't, but the body doesn't have to listen"

With just over 3 weeks to go until the big day I have conflicting thoughts.  I know the marathon race day itself is only one day and is a product of the last 18 weeks of hardcore running but I still have worries.  Will I even finish?  Will I hit the dreaded wall?  How will I feel after?  Have I prepared myself adequately? Should I have run more years before attempting the huge challenge that is the marathon?  However, the only way to know the answers to these questions is to just get out there and do it!

Toronto Goodlife Half-Marathon!

Wow, I did it!!! I successfully ran 21.1 km!!! During the run I remember thinking back to the summer of 2008 when I joined a gym and refused to run on the treadmills because I hated running. When I was forced to run I went for about 10 mins before wanting to cry. What a long way I have come! Over the next two years I have successfully increased my endurance levels to my middle goal of 21.1 km. Whats next? The full marathon baby.

I won't lie - the half-marathon was tough. Previous to this run the longest I had run at one time was 16 km. I was unsure on race day how the race would go. I ran the first 10 km very comfortably and was looking forward to the next 10 km. This was fine until I hit the 16 km mark. This is when I started to lose steam and when I really slowed down. By 18km it was almost agony. Why weren't my legs moving faster when I told them too?? My legs felt like steel drums that took all my concentration and energy to move up and down. At 20 km I didn't care whether I finished or not anymore, I just wanted to stop running. I saw someone with a sign saying, "Chuck Norris never ran marathons" this made me smile and gave me the last little bit of energy I could muster to finish the 1.1 km. When I crossed the finish line I wanted to cry, sleep, and sit down. I tried walking and stumbled. I felt drunk. After running for 2 hours and 2 mins it felt weird to suddenly not be moving. However, I was hooked. My next goal is to run the half - marathon faster with the ultimate goal of finishing a marathon. The winter will provide me training time and next spring I will come out ready to go!

Results: http://www.sportstats.ca/display-results.php?racecode=47247&first=KRISTIN&last=DAWSON&city=MONTREAL

The summer season is coming to an end so I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the goals I have achieved this year. The 3 most important goals I achieved to me are:

1) Finishing an Olympic distance triathlon (Ottawa June, 2010 time: 3:06.47)

2) Raising enough money to do the Ride to Conquer Cancer (and finishing it!)

3) Finishing a half-marathon (Toronto Oct, 2010 time: 2:02.37)

I am conflicted on what I should work on next season. The choice is to maintain the current distance and improve speed, OR, increase distance with the goal of just finishing. I will be honest, both the Olympic distance tri and the half-marathon took a lot out of me. If I want to increase distance events I will need to step up training time (a lot). Increasing distance is attractive to me because it is always a constant struggle between body and mind. Can I finish this? Am I willing to push through?? Repeating something you have already accomplished is a little less motivating, but being faster and stronger always makes one feel better. I will put some thought into this and decide over our long, dark, cold winter.

Bye for now!

Central/Eastern Europe Trip!

Even though the Ride to Conquer Cancer is officially over, I still very much enjoy blogging so I have decided to make this a general blog about my life. The first life entry will be about the central/eastern Europe trip my brother and I took for 2 weeks in August. Our trip was ambitious - 5 countries, 14 days, 5 languages, and an attempt to couch surf most of it. Here is our tale:

Day 1 and 2:We arrived at Pearson International Airport in Toronto on Thursday August 12th ready to fly out. After picking up 4 currencies at the Bureau de Change, having a snack with the parents, having our boarding delayed by 3o mins, we were ready to go. We were flying Luftansa to Frankfurt then after a brief stop we would be heading to Prague, Czech Republic the first country of our trip.

We finally reached our hotel at 13h00 local time Friday August 13th. My brother and I attempted to beat the jet lag (since we hadn't really slept in 24 hrs) so we wandered around to sight see and find food. We had a great dinner consisting of meat and potatoes (something that would be very common during our trip) and then passed out around 20h30.

Day 3:

The next morning we awoke quite late and almost missed our Continental breakfast! After eating and showering and heading out we decided to view Charles Bridge as our starting point. Unfortunately there were tourists EVERYWHERE and everything was PACKED. People were trying to sell you things everywhere you looked and there were about 10 tourists groups ahead of us all speaking different languages. We managed to squeeze through Charles Bridge and

headed up to view the Castle.

We saw a nice overview of the city, then went off in search of the bus terminal to buy our tickets for our next stop - Vienna, Austria.

Beer was amazingly cheap and delicious so that is pretty much all we drank, I have absolutely no complaints about this!

Ride to Conquer Cancer - Day 2!

The night before we were asked not to start cycling again until after 7 am but were advised to be on the road by 8 am. Therefore Jen and I decided if we got up at 6:30 am we would be good to go. I awoke to full sunlight and lots of voices and activity outside of our tent. I heard Jen ask, "Kristin are you up?". I rolled over and said yes! What time is it? It must be after 6:30!!

Jen turned her phone on and said,"Don't worry Kristin, it is 5:45 AM!"

I have never in my lifetime gotten up so early yet felt so energized! We wandered over to the breakfast tent and were given a cheese omelet, "turkey" bacon, pancakes, and oatmeal! After an interesting encounter with raspberry coulis and Jen (she thought it was a smoothie and was prepared to pour herself a glass!) we grabbed some beverages (orange juice and hot chocolate) and sat down to a nice breakfast. We then went back to our tent, packed our gear, dropped our stuff off at the trucks and collected our bikes, ready to start the day!

A fog had settled in by the time we got on our bikes and leaving Trois Rivieres we had to cross over a bridge. It was a cool feeling to be cycling over the bridge but only being able to see immediately around you, seeing the cyclists in front of you, the bridge you are on, and a little bit of the river over the side of the bridge. The air was so clean and fresh it almost felt like you were flying. It was a moment that made me smile and really appreciate life.

We stopped at the first pit stop to have a bathroom break and re-fuel with some gatorade. By this point the pit stops were much more scenic so I snapped a picture of a boat making its way up the St. Lawrence. I really wanted to jump into that inviting water!

We continued cycling and this was the leg of the journey I lost Jen on. She had been engulfed into this cycling team that was hitting a pretty fast pace of around 30-32 km/hr. They were very efficient in passing and signaling and it truly amazed me how much they worked as a team without ever saying a word to each other. The leader of the pack would signal to the riders behind him that they were about to over take a person and they would file in line behind him swiftly move as a unit into the "passing lane" and then effortlessly fall back into place after passing the slower rider. Also if any tiny piece of debris was seen on the road each rider would subsequently signal to the rider behind him what to avoid. This held true for anything. A few

pebbles, a slight crack in the road, a manhole - you name it you were aware of it. I suppose this

all makes sense when you are an inch away from the person's tire in front of you and you

are traveling at speeds of 30-35 km/hr! It just reminded me of a flock of birds flying south for the winter. It was so civilized and caring it made me feel a moment of pride for the sport of cycling. Anyways, I managed to keep up with them for about 15-20 km then I lost them. At this point we started hitting the hilly bits and I had to laugh when an older gentleman passing me exclaimed,"Who put this here?!" In reference to the looming hill. This stretch really was quite scenic and we passed a lot of barns with numerous cows and horses. Horses really are such beautiful animals and the way they look at you with absolute disinterest is so amusing. For this portion we had to cycle the length of a river, cross the river when it was narrow enough, and then cycle back. Therefore if you looked across the river you could see cyclists on the other side.

This is another moment when it hit me just how MANY of us there were. We had kilometers and kilometers to space out but you could STILL see a steady stream of cyclists.

I felt like we were apart of a marching army pressing on and hoping we will one day conquer our enemy(cancer) just by a sheer force of will and determination. There was only one moment during the ride when I was alone battling up a hill and seeing the heat waves from the asphalt I thought to myself, what the HECK am I doing here?? Its hot, the cycling is getting harder now and all I want is a nice cold beer. Of course life seems to seize these moments to really put you in your place. After I climbed the hill I saw a man in front of me in his mid to late 60s with a yellow cancer survivor flag on his bike. THIS is why I am here. This is why I am biking 290 km in 2 days in this heat and humidity. This man was easily 3 times my age AND had battled cancer. If he could do it no problem what right did I have to complain? After that only positive thoughts filled my mind. Afterwards we stopped at our second pit stop which was in a cute little town right on the river.

Our next stop was lunch which we took quite quickly as again it was in a giant field and provided little to no shade. Lunch was a turkey sandwich with hummus and tomato, bean salad, and a very yummy chocolate brownie for dessert. We quickly set off and took the next stage fairly easy, cycling side by side, enjoying the country side and chatting. What seemed such a short amount of time we reached our final pit stop. We once again loaded up on gatorade and water and sat by the water to take one last break.

We finally set off not believing that when we stopped cycling again it would be because we had crossed the finish line. We made it into Quebec City and the excitement started to build. Teams started waiting on the shoulder of the bike path to make sure all of their team members were together when they crossed the finish line. People were high fiving and shouting their congratulations to one another. We rounded the final bend and started to see the line up of cars. We passed the last official who shouted, be careful it will turn to gravel! Our bikes followed the orange pylons, we heard the roar of the crowd, we saw the smiling faces and the announcer shouted,"Congratulations Kristin and Jen, you have just finished". We passed under the banner and got off of our bikes. We smiled for the cameras and it hit us that we were finally done!!! We had just participated in The Ride to Conquer Cancer!! What a feeling of accomplishment and pride.

Now is the moment I want to take to once and for all thank EVERYONE. Thank you for your donations, thank you for your words of support, thank you for baking, for eating baked goods, for asking when the ride was and if I was ready for it, for offering to help and most importantly thank you for showing interest in this amazing and worth while cause. Thank you to Judy for providing the inspiration (even though it was under the worst set of circumstances ...), thank you to my parents and family for the never ending supply of support and encouragement and lastly, thank you to my team member, tent buddy, and one of my best friends. You have been a life saver to me and I couldn't have done any of this without you, Jen, you rock! How does 2011 sound???

Details to follow ...!

The Ride to Conquer Cancer 2010 Montreal to Quebec City - Day 1

Jennifer Wright and I, Kristin Dawson have officially completed The Ride to Conquer Cancer 2010 a cycling journey totaling 289 km from Montreal to Quebec City. It lasted only two days but has formed memories that will last a lifetime! Let us break down the 48 hours!

The beginning. Jen and I left the Olympic Stadium in Montreal the morning of Saturday July 10 not really knowing what to expect or how the day would go. The start was emotional for me. There were thousands of riders (1,836 to be exact) and we were all riding for the same cause. We were joining in the fight to conquer cancer.

Since there were so many riders it took awhile for Jen and I to actually hop onto our bikes and take off. For awhile we were just slowly walking with the crowd. If you had a large team you could customize your jerseys and I especially enjoyed the polka dot team!

Finally we reached the starting and we were off!! We experienced a scary event about 20 mins after officially leaving Olympic Stadium. For the most part we had police escorts for major intersections but there was one point at a 4 way stop where a driver refused to stop. A security cyclist stood in front of the vehicle to prevent him from moving but he inched his car forward anyway shouting angry remarks. It is sad how some people are so self absorbed and are so concerned about their own agenda that they refuse to consider anyone else. Even worse, this man may develop cancer one day and he will end up benefiting from people who have performed self-less acts like the cyclists he was attempting to run over. Thankfully this was the only

moment during the whole ride I temporarily contemplated what our world was coming too.

Lunch: Jen and I both agreed that the pit stops they provided every 30 kms or so was a perfect distance. It is long enough that you appreciate the stop but not too short that you don't feel the need to stop. Therefore Jen and I stopped at every pit stop. They provided gatorade, water, and snacks such as cookies, oranges, bananas and bagels with peanut butter. We had a total of 4 stops before settling for the night and one of them was lunch. We had pasta salad with chicken (tofu for Jen) a bun and a butter tart for dessert. It was really hot at this point and unfortunately we were in the middle of a field so we could find no shade. Therefore we left rather quickly since being on the bike provided more relief from the heat than did sitting around (thankfully!)

Arrival and Tent City: The first day of cycling was quite

enjoyable for me and although I was tired which I think a lot had to do with the heat I was not sore at all. The arrival at camp was very welcomed and Jen and I were very much looking forward to the showers. We retrieved our bags from the trucks and headed over to our tent which was thankfully already set up.

Jen and I left our stuff in our tent and headed over to the mobile showering unit to take a much needed and deserved shower!

Afterwards we set up our things in the tent and headed over to eat dinner. Dinner consisted of a turkey sausage, pasta salad, rosemary potatoes, peas carrots and corn and also bean salad (I didn't take any). We were allowed one beer with dinner and Jen and I gratefully accepted!

There was a band playing live music and everyone seemed to be in good spirits! Afterwards we wandered around camp and found they were providing free yoga instructions so we joined the hour long class. Felt good to stretch everything out after sitting on the bike for a good 6-7 hours! We attempted to get our free massages but they were wayyy over booked (camp services ended at 9 pm) so sadly we had to forgo this nice treatment! They announced the top fundraising individuals and teams and had a little presentation and reminded us all to sign up for next year's ride and then we were off to bed. Jen and I talked for a little while and even though we could hear a man snoring a few tents away I am sure I was out cold before 11 pm.

The first day overall was a great experience for me. The volunteers were so nice and ensured everything ran smoothly. The only complaint I had was the fact they ran out of water temporarily at lunch and since Jen and I were so overheated we were anxious to get back on our bikes we decided to forgo water for the next stage. We ended up having to stop at a gas station to buy water since Jen definitely needed some! Thankfully I had a camel back (which I must thank Georghia Michael for!) so I was OK. I strongly recommend these nifty things especially if next year it is going to be as hot as it was this year!

The Ride is TOMORROW!!!

WOW! I can't believe The Ride is tomorrow!!

I want to once again thank each and every person who donated. Without you I would not be doing the ride tomorrow and because of that I can't thank you enough. I remember the night Jen and I signed up to do this back in the beginning of March and how genuinely anxious and worried I was about raising the money. I honestly thought I would be scrambling even now, the night before, to raise the $2,500. The speed that we raised the money in and the fact we were both +500 $ over our goals has really surprised and touched me. If anyone ever decides not to do the ride because they don't think they can raise the money, trust me when I say you will. It is A LOT easier than you think and you will be very surprised at who donates and by how much they donate.

I also wanted to mention my Aunt Judy (pictured above with her father - my grandfather) for she is ultimately the inspiration for signing up and raising money for The Ride. Although we miss her, I am glad she is at peace now and I hope wherever she is right now she is looking down and smiling with pride at what each and every one of us riders are attempting to do tomorrow - Find a Cure.

I am very much looking forward to and am excited about tomorrow. It will contain all of the elements which bring me happiness. 1) A physical challenge 2) Emotional connection to people around you and a feeling of being a part of the greater good 3) Meeting new people and sharing a great experience with them 4) Seeing places from a view you would not normally see them.

I must dash now - home to pack and to the Olympic Stadium to drop my bike off. Jen will pick me up tomorrow just shy of 7 am and we will be off to do an epic ride! Don't worry, we have cameras with lots of memory space and will no doubt be showering you with pictures by the end of the weekend.

Let's find a cure!

(Also, go Spain go! Although we will miss the game, we know you deserve the win!)

Meech Lake Triathlon

Georghia and I competed in this triathlon last year and I really enjoyed the experience and was therefore keen to return this year. The triathlon takes place in Gatineau Park which provides beautiful scenery, the people are so kind and encouraging and the snack provided at the end is awesome. They have mini muffins of banana, chocolate and blueberry. Also, I must admit nothing tastes so amazing as cold watermelon after pushing yourself to the limit for the past 2 hours.

This year the weather forecast was sunny and HOT. Of course for once the weather network was actually correct and the weather was exactly as predicted. I arose at 5:45 am and had my usual pre-race breakfast (toast with LOTS of peanut butter, Nutella, and banana) and headed out to Gatineau Park. This triathlon is unique in that the distances aren't a sprint tri length or an olympic tri length, but somewhere in between. I set up my gear (at two different transition zones), got my timing chip, got body marking and was then ready to go.

Due to my outstanding swimming abilities (haha ...) the swim is always the easiest and fastest for me. I really appreciate this triathlon for a number of reasons but my favourite has to be the staggered swim start. My experience in Ottawa was not one I wanted to repeat and was thrilled when we started in waves of 30 swimmers from the beach. The only slight difficulty I had on the swim was on the way back the sun was directly in our faces and spotting the shore buoy although bright orange proved quite difficult. However I made it and took the short run (uphill) from the beach to the first transition zone. I threw on my bike gear and headed out. The hardest part of this triathlon is the very hilly course for the bike. Last year this proved agonizing for me since I was most definitely not mentally prepared, but this time around it was not half as bad. You are rewarded for your hill climb by the nice and fast descent after. I must admit I am not as ballsy as some cyclists proved to be as they bombed past me on the descent at speeds I'm too frightened to imagine. I clocked my top speed at 57.1 km/hr and dare to venture some of these cyclists were easily over 7o km/hr. Not for the faint of heart ... I finished my bike and started on the run. This time I decided an ipod would be good company since by this time the heat had reached a decent level and the run was on asphalt with no shade. An event that stands out from the run is the 81 year old man who was actually running ahead of me. Now, to be fair, this event can also be done in a relay style and this man was only doing the run portion, but I must admit I felt a great deal of relief when I was finally able to pass him. I couldn't let my ego take that kind of hit no matter how tired and hot I was. The only difficulty I experienced on the run was the last km or two. This part was almost entirely uphill and it was starting to be mid-day and the sun was taking a mental and physical toll. I actually attempted to change a song on my ipod but physically raising my hands and pushing the button turned out to be too taxing so I just concentrated on running and running only. I was relieved to finish and proud of my accomplishment. Although I feel in much better shape than last year I was only able to beat my time by a matter of 58 seconds. I must remember though that progress takes time and I just need to continue training, remain patient and the rewards will come!

Results:

Time: 1:56:01. Place overall: 148/208.

The information from sportstats is below:

http://www.sportstats.ca/display-results.php?lang=eng&racecode=45866&first=&last=dawson&bibnum=&page=&sortby=place&city=&sizeofpage=200&limit=2000

(again, if you click on the camera beside my name you can see the pictures they took of me ... thankfully they are WAY better than last year :).

I also just wanted to quickly comment on The Ride to Conquer Cancer. Jen and I have both received our biking jerseys in the mail and are both beyond excited to finally be able to do the ride. I can't believe how fast time has gone by and after months of planning, fundraising and training the ride is 6 days away!!! I will keep you all posted on how that turns out!!