It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

It's definitely that time of year again.  Last night, we sat down and watched 'It's a Wonderful Life,' and for the first time ever I did not fall asleep during the movie.  Tonight we will head to the in-law's for a little family Christmas time. So much festiveness going on.

My wife and I still need to make our annual Christmas card to send out.  Every year, we come up with a unique card to send out.  It's not uncommon for us to be sitting outside in the middle of summer scheming up ideas for that years card.  Of course, we don't actually produce the card until much, much later in the year (sometimes it doesn't go out until after Christmas thanks to our procrastination).  Our friends and family always seem to rave about them, although maybe they are just being polite.  The cards usually showcase our somewhat unique sense of humour.  It's fun (for me anyways) to look back on them as it chronicles my wife and I's life through the years, reminding me of where we were living each year, and the growth of our family (dogs).  I can't let out the secret of this year's card (largely because we haven't made it yet), but I will show you a couple of previous ones.

This was our first year with a dog. 

Horton was more than happy to oblige in the Christmas photo fun.

This was our first Christmas card with Abe, our Anatolian Shepherd. 

Unfortunately, he is no longer with us, but "Monkey" will be making her debut this year.

This is quite possibly my favourite card.  It was hilarious watching people trying to figure out the message at the bottom (in the spirit of anonymity, "Nik-ulth" is how my last name would sound if my tongue was stuck to a pole).

Another Day, Another Mile

After forcing myself to sit down and write my last paper of the semester (it was due today, so I really couldn't procrastinate any longer), I geared up and headed to the garage for a run on the treadmill.  Our garage is unfinished, and so I needed to dress warmly to not freeze.  I hadn't put on my running tights for over a month - let's just say that they definitely tell you when you've gained weight.  Ouch.  I think I need to back off the frozen vegan cookie dough. 

Since I'm still getting over being sick, I thought I should take it easy.  I started by walking 1/2 mile, then ran 2 miles, then walked another mile.  Most of the time I was running at about 9:30/mile, but I sped it up a couple of times to the pace I need to maintain for a Boston qualifier.  Umm, yeah.  I don't think that will be happening in May.  It's nice to have lofty goals and all, but I think I need to seriously re-evaluate.  Anyways, I ran some errands when I finished, and stopped off at a park to run outside a little bit.  I didn't push it too much, only ran a mile.  Oddly enough, had some pain in my OTHER knee, which didn't feel like IT band pain.  Who knows.  3 miles in a day is a record for me since the marathon, even if it was split into two runs.

My Wife's Birthday

Not much running news to report about - been busy finishing up the semester at school, being sick, and celebrating my wife's birthday.  She took a couple of days off of work, and I am on vacation from work this week, which worked out well.  Between my stupid work schedule, and her normal work schedule, we don't have any full days together on a regular basis.  So, having two full days together was great.  It's always enjoyable just to spend time with her, even if we're not doing anything extravagent.  She wanted to do a little shopping on her birthday, and so that's what we did.  Luckily I was raised by a single mother and had two sisters, so spending time at clothing stores isn't as torturous for me as it seems to be for most guys - I was broken in at an early age! 

For once, I think I did pretty good on a gift for her.  I suggested the idea to her dad, and together we got her an "indoor composter".  I know, I'm such a romantic.  In my defense of purchasing an appliance as a gift, it is something my wife has been, in her words, "coveting".  I must admit, it is pretty cool.  Once it's up and running, you can dump your kitchen scraps in at any time, up to 120lbs per month.  It heats it, mixes it, and does all the magic for you, right in your kitchen.  And, for the record, if your compost has the right nitrogen balance, it won't stink.

With her birthday, I've been eating a lot more than usual.  Dinner with her mom, dinner with her dad, we had lunch out together, vegan birthday cake, soy ice cream, ..... the list goes on.  Needless to say, I am really wanting to get back on the treadmill.  But, I've been feeling a little sick.  Not too bad, just enough to make me slightly cranky.  To make matters worse, we had a snowstorm last night and I'm not able to go out cross-country skiing.  There is usually only a handful of opportunities to bust out the ski's each year where we live, and the first one has already been missed.  Oh well, maybe next time.

Christmas Came Early!

Well, sort of.  I found out one of the gifts my wife got me this year.  Before I knew what it was, she kept telling me that she was unsure about this particular gift, and that I would either love it or think it was stupid. 

Well, it came in the mail yesterday, and my wife ended up a little disappointed with the gift, and so she showed it to me.  She had ordered me a running visor from Gas Cap.  Unfortunately, the color's were definitely different than the way they appeared on the website.  Let's just say that in real life, this particular visor is very "non-masculine" in appearance.   Despite the color, I loved the idea behind it though.  It has holders for two gels (one on each side) and a place to put your car key.  And the fact that my wife thought of this on her own (I'd never heard of them) makes it even more special.  I think she was worried that I would feel silly with gels strapped to my head, but when it comes to running I definitely put  function before fashion.

But, I just don't think I can bring myself to publicly wear a somewhat feminine-colored visor.  Unfortunately, the color options are limited, but I found one that I think I will like (and is not pastel!).  I decided I liked the hat version better than the visor, because the hat holds 8 gels, and I thought it would be perfect for my next marathon attempt.  So, my wife contacted the company to see about an exchange.  You never know what to expect with small companies, especially when their return policy is not listed on the website.  But, needless to say, they went above and beyond and are shipping out a new hat today, before I even send them this one back (and to make up for our return shipping cost, they aren't charging us the price difference between the visor and the hat).  So, they get three bonus points from me, before I've even officially used the product. 

I'll post a full review after I've had a chance to use the new hat.  But, I am very excited about it.  Merry Christmas to me!

This is the one I decided to go with.  The dark blue is actually the same as the darker color on the top visor, but it uses gray instead of the lighter "sky blue" color in the middle of the visor that I'm wearing.  The only other option for me would have been all-white, but I have a problem keeping white anything clean. 

Finally!

I finally feel like I'm getting back into the groove.  I ran 1.65 miles last night on the treadmill, and was quite excited about that.  This morning, I hopped back on and ran 2.0 miles!  It's hard to believe I am so excited about 2 miles, when 6 weeks ago I ran 26.2, but considering my mileage as of late, 2 miles is quite far! 

I wanted to see how much fitness I had actually lost during my injury stint, and so I ended my 2 miles with about 45 seconds at a 6:00/mile pace to get my heart rate up.  Then I stopped, and tested my heart rate recovery.  I was quite surprised to see that it still dropped more than 50 beats/minute in the first 60 seconds.  Not much change from before the marathon.  So, now I just need to get my leg muscles back into shape, and I'll be set. 

When I came back inside from the garage, I realized that I had actually been sweating.  It's been so long since I've felt sweat on my forehead.  Strange, but I've missed the feeling.  I was so happy that I took a picture of my sweaty forehead, but I'll spare you the sight (even though my blog has been lacking in photos lately).

2.0 miles (treadmill)

17:04

8:32/mile average pace

Welcome to the Neighbourhood

Warning, non-running rant coming up:

It's shortly after 4am, on a Monday morning, and I'm up already.  And I'm not happy about it either.  Especially since Monday is my Saturday - the beginning of my two days off from work.

We live in a very dog-friendly neighborhood.  At least half of the homes have dogs, and most are well-behaved.  We even have one of the airport bomb dogs living two doors down (he's by far the best behaved dog around).  We had brand new neighbours (right next door) move in last week, and they brought with them two dogs. 

And those "inside" dogs have been barking outside for hours.

Since I haven't had a chance to meet these neighbours yet, I think I'll head over to their front door and say hello.
................
They didn't answer.  Too bad, I was looking forward to meeting them at some ungodly hour of the morning.  I waited 15 minutes and went back to try again.  No luck.  So I left them a "welcome to the neighbourhood" note on their door.  (Don't worry, I was polite, I think.  I was pretty tired when I wrote it).

End of Rant

In running related news, my mother-in-law graciously offered to relocate her treadmill to our garage!  I'm very excited to have the treadmill as an option for running this winter.  Our garage is unfinished, so it will be cold in there during the winter, but at least I'll be sheltered and dry (and not nearly as cold as outside).  Last night I ran on the treadmill for ONE MILE!   A far cry from 26.2, but I'm still at least somewhat pleased.  I stopped because of some slight pain in my knee.  I think I was probably hyper-cautious, and stopped at the slightest pain on the outside of my knee, which may have been unnecessary.  But, I'd rather be overly cautious than do more damage.  I still have 48 days to get back up to 30 miles per week for the start of my next round of marathon training.  Little steps.

Change in Training Plans

I feel like I'm getting this IT band pain under control.  I've been stretching and icing like crazy.  The other day, my in-laws bought me a foam roller, so I've been incorporating that into the mix also.  I've read that if you're using the foam roller correctly, it will hurt like hell - with the pain it causes me I am convinced I know how to use it already!  I'm not sure if my wife believed how badly the foam roller hurt.  Now that she's tried it, I don't think she'll mind the occasional f-bomb I might drop while rolling out my IT band. 

I also went back to the doc today (finally).  He didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know about my knee pain, but it's more authoritative to hear it coming from a white lab coat rather than wikipedia.  If the pain gets real bad again though, he wants to refer me to an orthopedic for an MRI.  Not sure I would go to that extreme, but we'll see what happens.

I was originally intending on using Pfitzinger's 24 week plan for the Calgary Marathon.  That means I would start training December 13, and week one of the plan is over 30 miles.  Since my mileage has been essentially non-existant, I'm going to switch to Pfitzinger's 18 week plan instead.  That will allow me 55 days to build back up my base before the training plan kicks in.

Before I start back up with the training, I'll need to go get fitted for some new shoes.  I'm not sure if that contributed to my IT band issues, but I've heard it can be the primary cause of problems for some runners.  Between the two pairs of shoes that I was training in, one was a stability shoe and the other was a neutral shoe.  It was the stability pair that I did most of my long runs and actually ran the marathon in, but that pair was at the end of its lifecycle.  My ITBS could have been caused by the sloped road on the marathon course too, but I should probably just go ahead and get my gait analyzed again to make sure I select the right shoes. 

Unrelated, but since I posted about our dog Horton's knee problems, he seems to be doing significantly better already.  He wants to run around and play again, but we still have to keep his activities as low-key as we can for another three weeks.  Could be hard to do since he's so happy and ready to go, but that's not necessarily a bad problem to have.