The Running Diva

Friday, October 17, 2008

Yesterday was a scheduled day off. I just did my core and strength routine and had a massage from Kimmy in the late afternoon. Otherwise the day was spent doing research for an assignment. 

I got my first 45′ run done early this morning. I ran the Goose route to Spinnaker’s and back. It was pretty warm out and I enjoyed being out on such a nice morning. I met my guitarist this morning before class and we read through a couple of pieces for the first time. We want to do a set of Dowland songs that are pretty straight forward. The song cycle we are looking at is a bit more complex. I don’t know them at all and have never heard them performed: Songs of the Chinese by Benjamin Britten. We read through one of the songs which we both learned for this week’s rehearsal. It is rhythmically tricky but it we did ok. I like that it will be a challenge and something different from the repertoire I have done up until now. I am thrilled Cesar plays so well…should be a great partnership this year. We both have to do recitals in the early spring so we will play at each others’ exams. We also talked about doing a recording of the Britten cycle since there isn’t one at the moment with soprano.

I went home after my morning class and did a phone interview for the Province article. The interviewer sounded so enthusiastic. I couldn’t help thinking…Does this guy really give two hoots about my running etc? Anyway, if he was bored or whatever, he certainly did his job well and didn’t let up  so that made it easy. Back to UVic I went afterwards to sing (it sucked) at a voice masterclass. My head just wasn’t there and I was rushed getting back in time and didn’t warm-up and blah…blah…I’m the Queen of Bad Excuses.

I met up with Schester in the late afternoon and ran on the UVic trails. I was feeling a bit blah so we took it easy.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

It was a very busy day today. Wednesdays are my fullest days with classes and rehearsals. I had a wild voice lesson in the afternoon. A photographer from Vikes marketing took photos of me and Benj during my singing lesson. There will be an article about masters athletes in The Province newspaper in a few weeks. They had me wear my team uniform while I sang. Benj and I had the lesson while the photographer was standing on chairs and moving all over the room while we worked. It was pretty bizarre!

 After my last class, I drove over to Lambrick Park for my wo. Some of the team did their wo the day before but Jon thought an extra day after the race would allow me to get a long run in and give me an extra day to recover from the weekend’s race. So it was just me and Justine today. Brent showed us the 1km route he set up between the two fields. We were to run two laps of fartlek (150-250m) x 3 sets with 3′ between sets. I used this session to focus on a quick and relaxed turn-over. I felt very frisky but kept it under control. The session gave me 4.5 km of 1500m running. Brent then said to do a 15′ tempo run. I switched into my regular shoes, drank some water and off I went. I felt very good in the first 8′ or so…with all that fast running, my turn-over was easy and fluid. The last 5′ though had my gluts feeling a bit tight but I got it done just as it started to rain! Whew!

Monday, October 14, 2008

I did my morning 45′ along the Goose and was it ever a beautiful run! I was out pretty early so there was still mist coming off the water near the Selkirk bridge. I kept the pace steady and enjoyed the section along the Songhees next to the water…checked out the float planes coming into the harbour…what a cool town we live in!

My afternoon run was after classes with Dave at Mount Doug. We ran at a very easy pace. I was going to do an icing but needed to pick up groceries instead. Dave wasn’t able to dip in either so it was an easy decision to make!

Monday, October 13, 2008

Jon picked me up this morning and we headed out to Thetis for a run along the trails there. We started out on the main route and then we took some great trails out past Munns Rd, through Francis King. It drizzled a bit but otherwise it was a beautiful run and I ran on trails I have never been on before! I just love it there. It was great getting some time to chat with Jon about running training. I feel so lucky! I hope I don’t drive him crazy asking him questions. I can never get enough information especially from someone with his knowledge and at his level.

I spent the whole day inside working on an assignment and trying to learn some repertoire for the week. It was kind of lousy out so it wasn’t too bad.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

I got up with Juice this morning to help him get ready for the Royal Victoria half-marathon. His calf was bothering him this week but he got in to see MC and he thought it helped a lot. So, he didn’t do much running this week which was good timing for his taper! We left Al sleeping. The 7:30 start is a bit early for any sane person. I dropped Juice off about a 10′ run from the James Bay Thrifty’s where I drove ahead and parked to wait for him so he could give me his warm-up clothes. It worked out that he had the perfect amount of time to jog right down to the start line and get in a few strides. I then drove over to Beacon Hill Park and parked as close to the race route as possible. I jogged over to Dallas Rd and stood waiting close to the turn around for the 8km race. Ten minutes later the runners ran by as I cheered and then I jogged back into the park just in time to see Juice who was now about kilometre 3 into the race. He looked completely relaxed and even shot me a smile! I  had made plans the night before to meet Jon, Dave and Gary at the Fairfield Starbucks so off I ran and got there just as Jon was driving into the p-lot.  I hadn’t seen Jon and Dave since their return from the UK. Both came down with a cold bug so they had been taking it easy this week. The weather was absolutely lovely for racing. There was no wind, not even on Dallas Rd and the temperature was perfect. The four of us made our way back to Dallas and I got to see Joey again just as he hit the 10km mark. He had just taken his gel and some water. I took his gloves and off he went, still looking really light on his feet. We continued following the route along Hollywood cheering runners as they went by us. We eventually turned around and ran back towards the Breakwater. Eventually Joey came along with just over 2km to go and looking superb. We looked at our watches and it seemed he was on track to run sub 1:30! He was running beside a woman and they were working well with each other. I ran beside them up on the sidewalk calling out encouragement (probably driving the woman crazy!) and Joey really dug in and ran hard, right to the finish smashing last year’s PB by 5 minutes!!! 1:28:06. He was thrilled! I was so proud of him!!

We bumped into OCal who was also down at the start cheering his athletes on. We also saw Chops who joined us in getting a coffee while Juice did a cool-down. Back to the race start we went to watch the marathoners come in and this is where we met Al. We all were there to cheer Nancy and Brad on. Brad had to pull out but Nnacy ran a great race and finished with an excellent time. She didn’t quite make her goal at this race but still, ran a very smokin’ time of 3:01…not too shabby for a 45+ year old….holy smokes!

Brad and Nanc came over to our place to take quick showers and then we all went out to brunch at Demi-tasse.

Brad and Nancy

Mar-Lumps and brother Al

We invited Jac and Paul over for thanksgiving dinner. Half-way through cooking a roasted bird and veggies…the power went off. I opened the door to find our guests standing in our dark hallway and we just stood ther and laughed! We lit candles, ate nachos and dip, cheese and crackers and drank wine while waiting for the power to come on. It didn’t happen and apparently the whole city was without power! I whipped up a salad with whatever I had in the fridge…greens, chopped up pork-loin left-over from the night before, tomatoes, goats cheese, walnuts and red peppers. I felt like were were all on a diet! It was a fun “dinner” regardless and was completely lit by candlelight, which was kind of neat! We were thankful for good and understanding friends!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

We were greeted to a crisp morning. We could see our breath as we loaded into the vans and there was frost on the grass….brrrr…

Brent drove the women over to the meet location first since we were the first to run. The Pete Steilberg Open meet is pretty low-key, with just a handful of schools participating so the atmosphere was very different from Stanford. Less hype and excitement that’s for sure but still had a very fun atmosphere where the athletes had opportunities to meet each other and chat a bit after the race.

4th place finisher and SFU athlete Kirsten Kolstad

Winner UofA Paula Findley and 5th place finisher and Vike, Kerry Spearing

The always charming Vikes women.

The meet was hosted by Evergreen College and the races took place on their beautiful campus. The race route was a simple loop that the women run twice to make a 5km course. The men ran 8km…not sure why we didn’t do that too but oh well. The terrain was a real mix of lumpy grass, gravel, a small section of pavement (with a 180 turn on it), wooded trails and had a few small hills and sharp turns and we even got to hop over a log! It made the Stanford course seem like we were running on a treadmill!

Our race settled into race pace after just a couple of hundred metres  on the field. Paula  and I took turns leading in the first loop. I felt very much in control and relaxed. In the second loop with just over a mile to go, things got a bit tough so I tucked in behind Paula and spent the last 6 minutes focusing in hanging in. My breathing felt fine but I got a wicked side-stitch and my legs were feeling stiff. With 200m to Paula pulled away and I tried to give the gas but my legs didn’t respond. I finished 3″ behind but was pretty happy with my effort. It was a fun competition and I think we both were glad to have each other to push against. Our women’s team did even better this week with some great times. Kerry had a brilliant run as did Alex who did a complete turn-around in two weeks…yes! Our team won the meet!

The men’s race was great fun to watch. Geoff and Dan took first and second with Cliff taking 9th!

  The men won too so all around a great day for the Vikes!

The trip back included a quick lunch stop right after the race and then a stop after a good hour of driving at this little place in the middle of nowhere. A few railroad cars were converted into the cutest ice cream shop and candy store.

 We made the owner’s weekend …20+ hungry runners tryng to unload the last of their US spending money!

I made a friend.

Brother Al picked me up at the ferry…embarrassed me in front of Janet and Schester…love my brother. I did a very easy 30′ run around my hood in the dark…discovered a great route and then had a deluxe dinner prepared by Juice!

Friday, October 10, 2008

I spent the morning packing and putting some final edits into my paper. After class I met the team at the gym and we all drove downtown in four vans to catch the Coho over to Port Angeles.

The ferry ride out of the harbour was beautiful but got too cold for me once we were out in the open water.

The trip took a bit longer than expected so we had to phone ahead to the hotel to make sure the food Brent had ordered ahead of time was kept warm. We ate the minute we got there so Laura and I had to do our little shake out the legs run on a full stomach. We sort of lost our way coming back…to much yakking and not enough noticing where we were going…but made it back to the hotel alright. Shauna and I had a HUGE room with one of the largest bathrooms I have ever seen!

Thursday, October 9, 2008

I decided to run on the flat again this morning so I was back on the Goose and ran steady, doing an out and back which took me as far as Spinnaker’s. it was sunny and warm and running along the water was amazing! My butt and hips feel better today but Kim said I was pretty tight after the massage she gave me in the afternoon. I did a very light session of core and strength stuff and spent the rest of the night getting an assignment done

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

I started my easy run at Cedar Hill this morning, did a loop and then headed to the flat on The Goose. My butt and hips were a bit tight so I didn’t think an hour at CH would be a good idea. It was a beautiful morning!

My day was pretty packed and went long with the masterclass in the evening. I didn’t sing after all which was pretty disappointing. It was tough sitting there and not getting to work with Isabel.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

My morning run was very easy at CH. I just shuffled around the course. I notice that there are fewer people walking there in the mornings now that the weather is getting chillier. It was a strange run, very windy and cloudy to start with the sun breaking through 15′ into the run.

I met the Vikes tonight for another run at Cedar Hill. We did 4′ at race pace on the lower loop going up that darn hill (3′) then 10′ at 3:45 pace on the upper loop (2′) then 2 x 3:30 up the gravel hill with equal rests between and then another 10′ tempo. I was feeling good and maybe ran a bit too hard on the 3:30s…butt and hip flexors were a bit stiff and tight on the cool-down. Kim will have her work cut out for her on Thursday!