Get scared.
“Do one thing everyday that scares you.” Eleanor Roosevelt Last week I decided to accept this challenge. I chose to go trail running at night… solo. Now I love running trails solo, but have never ventured out into the night on the trails. I have journeyed out into early morning darkness, but that was based on the knowledge that the darkness would quickly turn to the lovely golden light that brings with it feelings of safety and confidence. This run was going to be very different, it was going to start in darkness and end in darkness. There would be no warming glow of safe sunshine, just the bubble of light cast from my headlamp. I tried to keep my focus within this little bubble of light, not thinking so much of what might be happening outside of it, what might be scurrying in the depths of the forest or peering at me from the darkness with vision more accustomed to nightlife. I left the house that night, reached the car and turned right back towards the front door, but just before I reached it, I forced myself to stop, turn the other direction and head right back to the car. “Just go!” When I actually got to the start of the trail and started running the first section, which runs parallel to the highway, the presence and light cast from passing cars gave me a sense of security. Somehow I convinced myself to just run to the top of the section, before it spit me into the forest. “Just cut it short it’s okay” I told myself. But the closer I got to top I couldn’t let myself be that easily persuaded, I knew I would regret not following through. So into the dark forest I went. Shouting and clapping as I went, I refused to look behind me, which I often do on trail runs during the day to make sure I am not in the way of oncoming bikers or faster runners. But this time I knew if I looked behind I would see only a few feet of light cast by my headlamp and then darkness. In all honesty the only fear I had that night was of large animals that may be roaming looking for a night-time snack, and I did not want to surprise anything that was out on the trails looking for food. My mind mostly turned to cougars which frequent this particular area of town. I had to keep telling myself that the only difference on the trails at night is the absence of light; there was nothing out to get...
Magic number 50
Yes, I have a magic number. Now it’s not magic in that I believe it has any supernatural traits. No, it’s actually more like this number gives me the ability to remember what I am capable of when I am feeding off of my last ounce of energy, physically or mentally. Repeating this number to myself, as if invoking my brain for some special power it didn’t realize it had, is a way of getting myself through some tough challenges. So what is my magic number? Well up until August 10th it was 42 ( and if I am going to be really specific 42.2). That’s right in kilometers that is the distance of a marathon, of which I have run 2. This is no great feat, as many people have run this distance, but it does provide a keen sense of mental awareness of what your body can achieve. Just knowing the distance you can push your body to run, translates to being able to push yourself in so many other aspects of life. For myself it has become a mantra I say to myself when the going gets tough. During a long hard day in the mountains I can draw energy from this number, if I can run that distance surely I can tackle the physical and mental challenge I currently find myself facing. What happened August 10th? Well that was the day of my first 50km ultra trail race, the Arc”teryx Squamish 50. I tried to post updates regarding my training as the months passed, but as I mentioned in a previous post, this did not pan out as well as I hoped it would. Nonetheless race day came, despite my inability to catalog the months and days leading up to the race. So here are a few thoughts on how that day went. Race day was forecast to be 28 degrees (celcius) but feel like 31, so I was concerned about running in the heat. But when I woke up to a cloudy sky in Squamish I was so thankful! Driving down to catch the bus to our respective races, Leigh to his 23km starting line at Quest and me to the 50km start at Alice Lake, we could see the sun streaming through the clouds above the chief. Beautiful though it was, I hoped that the sun would duck back behind the clouds for just a few more hours. Arriving at the start line, with 1/2 an hour to spare, I seen the familiar faces of friends also running the race. It helped to calm the nerves, just a little bit, and the excitement...
Running the Arc’teryx Squamish 50 23k
Photos by Lesley Morgan Loree Photos by Lesley Morgan Loree On Saturday, the 10th of August, I ran in my first ever race, road or trail, the “Squamish 50” 23k. It’s called the Squamish 50 as the main race is 50 miles long, but they also offer variants of the course that are 50km’s and 23km’s in length. Spring, the other half of pebbleshoo, ran in the 50km, a mammoth achievement, and will be posting her thoughts on that also. If you’ve been following this blog you might remember I posted about my reasons to run this race back in January, you can read that original post here: Twenty Three Well, did I hit my goal of losing 23lbs in weight? No. I did not. I’m around 15lbs lighter. I guess something changed between writing that initial post and actually running the race. Weight loss is still happening but I don’t frequently monitor my weight so it isn’t like I’ve set weight loss goals and am keeping track that I’m hitting them. I imagined I might lose around 23lbs by the race simply by being very active. I guess my body is happy with its current weight and doesn’t want it to drop much lower for now. Another aspect is that I don’t like feeling hungry. It’s an unnecessary mental distraction. Since January and when I wrote that first post about signing up for this race I’ve been doing a lot more Skiing, Mountain Biking and Rock Climbing, as well as some Backpacking and Mountaineering. Primarily though, compared to the last 3 years, I’ve cut back on Backpacking and spent a lot more of the Spring and Summer Mountain Biking and Rock Climbing. Generally, when my body is losing weight quickly, I feel hungry. When climbing it made me feel weak and when biking it made me feel shaky. This wasn’t good. I decided that I’d rather feel satiated and enjoy learning to get better at these activities than spend time thinking about food I could be eating. It seems to be working. I’m eating enough and I’m still losing weight, it’s just very, very slow. What has helped is that rather than reducing the quantity of food I was consuming I’ve changed the quality of it. I’m eating a lot more organic fruits and vegetables. I’ve cut out a lot of dairy as well, I consume no milk anymore (replaced it with Almond milk), I eat a little cheese and yogurt and trace amounts of butter. I’ve also cut back on wheat, refined sugars and canned foods. You might have noticed above that I didn’t mention running as...
Good Days and Bad Days
So I should be stretching right now, but I wanted to write up a quick post while I am still sweaty and still feeling the sting of being slightly frustrated during my run. That’s right, today was one of those days with running. I think it’s important to talk about the not so great days, because it gives me focus to see what I can work on and helps me to remember that I am just human after all. There is usually a reason for the bad run - not hydrating properly, not eating adequately or eating at the wrong time, not getting a good nights sleep, along with a whole myriad of other reasons. However, the reason I bring this up is not to highlight the fact that if you run long enough you will experience those bad days, but to highlight the mental consequences of these runs. When all we look at is the achievements of other people it can be very inspiring; but it makes it hard to understand the process both physically and mentally of getting to that state. Which is why it is valuable to share when everything doesn’t just fall into place. This helps us to analyze the process, stop trying to explain away the poor performance and really learn from the mistakes which in turn makes us a better runner. Sometimes there is simply no reason for a bad run, other than the fact that it was bad run. I stopped trying to convince myself that running is always fun, it’s not. I stopped trying to convince myself that running should be easy, it’s not. That’s right, I said it. You are going to have the days where you don’t feel like running, where you don’t meet the distance you set out to or when you stop midway in a run and just turn home. But it’s ok! We are all living bodies and we are not some machine that can be turned on and off when required to work. It’s just a part of life and we are all subject to life’s little hiccups, it’s what keeps it interesting. Part way through my run today, I was feeling tired, my legs were heavy as lead and was I frustrated I couldn’t run up the hill that only last week I flew up. I closed my eyes, took a few deep breaths and reminded myself where I was. Opening my eyes I could see the sun stream through the giant pine and cedar trees, lighting up the ferns blanketing the ground below, the sweet scent of summer leaves in the air. I could...
My 3 Day Food Cleanse Experience
I recently started a new job working for an organic grocery delivery company. As someone who tries to be as active as possible and has a goal of running a 50km trail race this summer, I focus a lot on how I fuel my body, so organics seemed right up my alley as I truly believe in clean, natural sustainable produce as the best form of food. Fast forward to 1 month in at the new job and there was discussion at work about doing an office cleanse. I have never actually done a cleanse before and was intrigued at the thought of it. In the past I have read articles about cleansing and discovered that a lot of people spoke of a clarity of mind and intense focus that came as a result of doing a cleanse; this interested me enough to want to give it a try. However, I knew that I couldn’t do it for long as I didn’t want it to interfere with my training…I can’t run without food in my body! After talking it over at work we decided that we would all choose the cleanse of our choice, I opted for a 3 day juice cleanse. I made sure to research to ensure I was doing it right, such as drinking alkaline juices in the morning/evening and a juice with a higher sugar content in the afternoon. Recently my other half and I have been adding veggie juices almost daily to our diet (partly motivated from watching the documentary Fat Sick & Nealy Dead) so the thought of juicing wasn’t new to me; but could I do it for 3 days straight, that was the question. Here is a quick look back at how I did over those 3 days. Day 1: As a 1 cup a day coffee drinker it was a bit tough to start the day without a coffee and it was a Monday as well *ugh*. As I read when researching for the cleanse, a cup of hot water with lemon is a great way to stimulate the digestive system, flush toxins and re-hydrate you after an 8 hour night of fasting; so this is how I decided to start my morning. To be honest I actually felt a little bit queasy after this drink, but went ahead with making myself a morning juice. I was making a juice with mint so hoped it would settle my stomach a bit. Mighty Mint Juice 1 Lemon 1/4 Cucumber 1 Handful Chard 0r Spinach 1 Bunch Mint 1/2 Apple I left for work not feeling too bad, but my head...
