Gifts

I'm fast approaching physio graduation, after making rapid improvements over the last month. Things are really starting to come together now, and I'm excited to build up my training, and finally race again this winter. When I look back over the last year since I 'checked into rehab' (so to speak), I feel in such a better place. I feel like I missed out on a lot, but in the end I know I am coming out in a better, more sustainable, and wiser place.

The hardest part was in September after realizing that I had to let go of precious mileage and long runs that were just getting my nose above water again, and cut back again to let my new physio stuff really kick in. It made sense on paper that the quickest way forward was to hit the pause button, but by then I had used up all my patience. I was in an ugly mood let me tell you; it was so frustrating to miss another fall without a goal race.

My physiotherapist, Stacee Smith, is incredible. She really understands how interconnected the body is, and keeps the big picture in mind as she corrects imbalances with stretching and progressive strengthening. I've learned so much from her, and my running will always be better for it. Even after she proclaims me well, I'm going to keep going for maintenance on a regular basis in the future. We ask a lot of our bodies and need to take care of them. Somewhere along the line I really started taking mine for granted.

Another amazing healer who I've been going to this year is Dr. Sonya Nobbe, a Naturopath. She has also helped me a ton with her advice and recommendations of supplements based on my blood work, diet, lifestyle, etc.. I've had absolutely great results so far and can really feel the difference. For example, she casually mentioned in my first visit that we'd get my iron stores above 50 and I thought, 'wouldn't that would be nice, but not possible'. Just a few months later, they were at 51.

When we hosted the Sydenham Fall Trail Run two weeks ago, I stood by the finish line, where I always do, and was struck by the emotion of individuals and groups coming in. All shapes and sizes of people, all ages, some with pain written on their faces, and some with huge smiles. A group of women wearing matching pink shirts streamed in whooping it up, and the thought that this little race has become special to a lot of people was overwhelmingly satisfying. I was glad I was wearing my sunglasses. I still can't watch it in the video without welling up.

We're all connected, and I've learned we don't always need to achieve something ourselves to gain from it. I gained 223 times over that day, and am grateful to my fellow runners for giving me that. I'm certain that without my year of injury it would have just been a rather nice but exhausting day, but instead it turned out that it gave me my fall race after all.

Thanksgiving Run

Fun, Fall, Frontenac

Some scenes from yesterday's long run.

Workout Bliss

Derrick and I did our first real workout together last night in way too long; maybe a year even, yikes. A ridiculously long time, and oh how I've missed the fun we have. (When I say we do it together I really mean we warm up together, do the same workout at our own pace, then cool down together.) The workout was a tempo run around two loops of a combination trail and road route with a big uphill at the end, so it wasn't a super-fast loop, but the effort felt great.

The cool down is always so fun because we chatter away in our sweaty-tired satisfaction about how we felt, our pace, blah blah blah, just basically analyzing every little thing in absurd detail that a non-runner would find extremely bizarre and tedious.

On normal runs you can let your mind wander, but in a speed workout your world becomes narrowly focused down to your own little bubble. I crave that, and that's a big part of why I love workouts so much. They are uncomfortable, but they have to be to get to that place where all the clutter in your brain just falls to the wayside and you're floating free.



A Siku Workout: Spinning in Circles

Colorado II: James Peak

We woke early, hopeful that the window of good weather would stay open for us to reach the summit of James Peak. At 13,294 feet, it would be the highest we had ever run, and after only five days since leaving Ontario, it would be a good challenge.

During the previous days in Colorado we hadn't let the altitude hold us back, but had tried to be smart by sleeping in Boulder for two nights before moving on to St. Mary's at about 10,000 ft for the rest of our trip. During this time we hiked and ran up to higher elevations a couple of times each day. Luckily we all coped pretty well which was a relief.

We were staying just a short distance from the St. Mary's Glacier, a really neat snowfield at around 11,000 ft. We had all been up there to hike the day before and scouted out the area above it, to around 12,000 ft. The vast landscape above treeline was incredible, I never wanted to come down. A couple of hikers confirmed that the blob of mountains ahead of us contained James Peak, and that it would be a good target for the next day. We learned it was on the Continental Divide, which I got so excited about and it became an even bigger pull.

Starting up the trail, I tried to pace myself, but even so I found that I was huffing pretty hard early on. I hiked the steeper part of the glacier before returning to running when it mercifully flattened out. Once we made our way further up James Peak the going got very tough and I was hiking more than running. The grades didn't seem too bad with all the switchbacks, but the altitude definitely made it a lot harder. It was a bit frustrating to have to go slower and slower to haul myself up, all the while breathing harder and harder, but I told myself not to be stupid and just be happy that I was able to do it at all.

Finally reaching the summit, we took in the hard-earned view before heading back down. Going down was so easy with the gentle slopes that prevented it from being overly jarring, but it seemed to take forever to get to the bottom. I felt pretty good about making it up all that way.

What I loved about this whole area is that it wasn't busy. Down on the glacier area there were a lot of people, but getting up higher it was empty. If there had have been a 14'er in the area, we guessed it might have been packed. On the entire run up James Peak we only met a group of two on our way up, and another two later on our way down. It was nice to have the mountain to ourselves.

After this run I felt completely and utterly useless until late in the afternoon, similar to after a really hard race effort.

Photos, going up and then coming down:

Late Summer Update

I got to a certain point in my recovery which I was finding difficult to get past, so I have been going to see an amazing physio who specializes in running. I'm completely impressed by her approach, how she has been looking at the big picture of how things are working together.

Frankly, I have no patience left to throw at a slow recovery, so I have cut my mileage for a few weeks and am rehabbing like crazy to get things off the ground. Cutting my mileage is very hard because I'm just starting to get some fitness back, but my gut is telling me that if I can just hang in there to lay a good foundation from this particular rehab, then I will be in a much, much, much better place to increase. In three visits I'm already noticing massive improvements in my pelvic alignment and glute function, so at least I have obvious feedback that I'm on the right track.

Running-wise it's been a very challenging year and I'm feeling a bit desperate by this point, but I have to acknowledge that a lot of good has come out of it. I should be all positive-minded and list those good things, but I'm not in the mood to do that anymore. Seriously, time to move on.

UPDATE: I should delete this post for being so whiney!

Colorado

Ahh, Colorado.



Heaven.















Stunning.






Fun.





Joy.

Paradise.

Bliss.

If you want inner peace find it in solitude, not speed, and if you would find yourself, look to the land from which you came and to which you go. - Steward L. Udall

Read more on Colorado (run up James Peak) here.