Month: December 2012

Marathon Training Day #1: Moksha Flow

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This is my yoga bag. Like it? I made it. If you look realllllly close (okay not that close) you can see all the crooked seams. It's spectacular.

This is my yoga bag. Like it? I made it. If you look realllllly close (okay not that close) you can see all the crooked seams. It’s spectacular.

 

Marathon training day one. It was technically a “rest” day but my schedule says “rest or cross-training” and it’s New Year’s Eve and I didn’t have anything else to do today. So I went to yoga. I did the 3pm flow class at Moksha Danforth. I don’t do Moksha regularly and I forgot how stupidly hot it can be when you aren’t used to it. I struggled and sweated and made my shoulder a bit achy. (I fell off my bike Friday — slush = slippery — and landed on my shoulder. I will ice it once this post is complete and I expect it to be 100% soon.)

Despite my struggles, it was good to push myself outside my regular yoga routine and have one great sweat before I say goodbye to 2012.

Tomorrow, the running starts.

 

And so it begins: Marathon training

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Blue Nose Marathon Training Schedule.xls

Today is Monday, December 31. In other words, it is Day 1 of my marathon training.

I tried to train for a marathon last year and it didn’t work out. I half-followed an online plan, didn’t complement it properly with enough yoga and stretching and just wore myself out with running. So I scaled back to a half-marathon and had an okay race. But the failure allowed me to focus and figure out where I went wrong.

This time, I plan to do it right.

I hired a running coach. (Hi, Andie!) My coach gave me a plan and we will have weekly email check-ins to see how it’s going and what I am doing. It’s going to be great! Or, at least, organized. I got new running stuff for Christmas. I got a foam roller, which I plan to use every day. (So far, so good on this front. But oh my god, does it ever hurt.)

This last week of working out was good: I ran on Monday, Wednesday and Sunday, did yoga on Thursday and Friday and squashed and Bodypumped it on Saturday. There were only three of us in the Bodypump class, so when the teacher was yelling, you knew she yelling at you. Oh, aggressive motivation. It works so well. But it felt good to get that many workouts in, and gave me hope that I can fit in all my marathon training around life things.

For my first week of training, this is what I have planned/my coach is telling me to do:

Monday: rest (hahaha, this feels like cheating!)

Tuesday: 8k at a moderate tempo, which I can do as 10&1 if I can’t sustain that pace (On New Year’s Day! This will be painful. I dislike a lot of holidays, but NYE is not one of them. A holiday where the only expecation is to drink a lot? Now, that’s my kind of holiday.)

Wednesday: Speedwork: 10 minute warm-up, 4X2 minutes, with 90 second break in between (speedwork is the ENEMY, but I’m glad this is a time thing, so I can do it on the street)

Thursday: REST (This is on my plan in CAPITALS, so I know it’s serious.)

Friday: 30 minute hilly route, with 3-4 rolling hills (Thank goodness I live near Riverdale, where hills abound. I also plan to go to yoga this day, which isn’t on my coach’s plan, but is in the Erin Balser life plan.)

Saturday: Easy 30 minutes (This is optional, but I may pull a run-to-yoga OR join the Lulu Lemon running club and slow everyone down. I have a grand plan to alternating Saturdays with squash/bodypump and run/yoga. I recognize how ambitious this is.)

Sunday: 13k LSD, to do as 10&1s (HAHAHA, I might possibly die. I haven’t run over 10k in MONTHS.)

How will I do? I’ll let you know next Monday…

 

 

Running in the snow

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Image by Bad Alley. Licensed via Creative Commons.

The Don Valley Trail. Image by Bad Alley. Licensed via Creative Commons.

 

There’s something magical about running in the snow, and when it all comes together — the sun, the crunch beneath your feet, the friendly people you pass (because everyone is friendlier on the trail in the winter) and even the songs the DJ on 99.9 chooses to play — there’s no place I’d rather be than pushing through on a nature trail in sub-zero weather. I’ll take days like today over summer runs any day. It helps I got to wear my new TEAL WunderUnders on their first ever run. Brightly coloured workout wear makes me happy, but they also make me look crazy.

Today was the last day of running for fun. Tomorrow is D1, the first day of training for the Bluenose Marathon on May 19. While I haven’t been running as much as I should to prep for this, I feel ready. I feel strong. I can do this.

And if I get more winter weather days like today, I might even enjoy it.

 

The run: 8.4k in 1:03:44

The route:

 

2013, here we come!

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2013

 

Oh, hello, blog. It’s been a while.

December was busy for both of us, with Jill being fit (she did a bootcamp, a Tracy Anderson challenge and a couple special runs) and me being not-so-fit (I had two medical procedures — planned — in one week, so my primary focus was being marathon-training ready and no more). Jill will write about her stuff when she gets back from her NYE yoga retreat. I won’t write about getting my wisdom teeth removed because that’s just gross.

But we have big fitness plans in 2013, and we’ll be back on the blogging bandwagon in January. Plans include:

Jill: yoga retreat in Costa Rica, marathon training and yoga teacher training.

Erin: marathon training, a 2-week hike with JK and a triathlon.

So buckle up. This blog (and our bodies) is about to get busy.

 

The $5 workshop (Crow (Bakasana)) that didn’t happen

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What: $5 Yoga Workshop
When: Sunday, November 4 @ 1:30pm
Where: Moksha Yoga Danforth (372A Danforth Avenue)
Who: Michelle Corbeil & Brendan Jensen

 

Okay, so remember way back when, when I went to the amazing workshop at Moksha Danforth? That’s right the one where I learned the 5 trickiest poses of Moksha. Well I promised myself, and all of you, I would take complete advantage of these $5 yoga workshops and attend every single one I possibly could. Sadly I could only fit two into my busy schedule, but I was really excited for the final one, mastering the art of Crow pose.

I am a terrible person. I didn’t go to the workshop.

I know, how did I let this happen? To be honest I can’t really remember the whole story, but it was entirely my own fault. I didn’t properly plan my day out very well – this I can remember – I was going to go to the workshop, then take the 3pm Moksha class, then go to Erin’s place to watch Revenge. But for some reason this Sunday as I waited for 1:30pm to arrive, I was feeling super antsy and fatigued. I just wanted to run! And really badly. The evening prior played a vital part of this feeling (I had a friend’s birthday party? or something, but either way it was a late night and alcohol was involved). So I ran. I thought I could still do all these things I had set out for the day – workshop, yoga, Erin’s house – but without my bike to get around I was doomed. To make a long story short, when I started my run I had approximately 45 minutes to work with. I ended up running too far and took too long. But I felt great! I was in a running groove and my body clearly needed to run of the happenings of the evening before. I felt good and strong, when I realized I had to book it to the subway. This totally threw off my runners groove. I ended up being 5 minutes late for the workshop and couldn’t bare to show my late face in class. So I left the studio feeling blue.

I then dragged my sad, sorry butt to The Big Carrot (which is amazing FYI) to kill time until the 3pm class. I needed to do some yoga after this mess I created for myself. Thankfully Jess Lemon was teaching. Jess brings an amazing therapeutic energy to her classes, this was one feeling I needed. Her calm, poise and dainty instructions were gentle to my body and soul. Jess is a yoga healer. 90 minutes in a hot room with Jess will change your practice. Trust me on this.

So after I was peacefully blissed out by Jess I was able to relax and be okay with the fact I missed the crow workshop. I just had a great class at a great studio – you can never ever leave yoga feeling bad about anything. Whether it’s the choices you made that day, or something you did, or even a feeling of building remorse (like not having your bike to ride) get to you. Yoga is how you can let that all go. I did make it to Erin’s afterwards and we did watch Revenge. See, more good things came my way.

I had to look on the bright side, I ran, I did yoga, I spent time with Erin, and she fed me dinner. This wasn’t a terrible day after all. Moksha Danforth, please just host another crow pose workshop and all will be good in the world. Thanks!