Sarah has continued to push herself and her limits this summer. I have relied heavily on her for support and advice over the last few months! She's put in the training and is all set to run the Queen City Marathon in September!
After the Saskatoon Police Service 1/2 marathon, I still had 5 weeks to go on the meal plan diet I started with a goal of losing 10 lbs. As of the SPS 1/2 I was 7 weeks in to a 12 week plan and had gained 8 lbs instead of losing....so as stubborn as I am I continued on for the next 5 weeks. At the end of the 12 weeks, I was up 12 lbs in weight to 159 lbs, this was extremely discouraging and devastating as I had worked so hard on my own post-baby to get down to 147 lbs. I thought consulting experts would make the last 10 lbs a sure thing.
In the end, when I voiced my frustration to those experts their answer was "that the success was up to me and that the diet had worked for everyone else and so maybe my brain doesn't want it to work". This sent me into a real downward spiral. How does a person run 30-50 miles a week and gain 12 lbs, when those who only do 20 min of cardio a day can lose the weight?
I consulted my doctor to see if there was something else at play such as thyroid and he just laughed. He said "why would you change what was working?" and laughed at the "brain not wanting it" reason I had been given and said "so if I give you a prescription and it doesn't work I should just tell you to let your mind believe and it will work?".
This made me start to re-evaluate what my fitness goals were.....during the diet my running suffered and it obviously had the opposite result on the scale than desired. So I consulted a few other fitness/nutrition experts only to find out that the meal plan I had been put on was not meant for high cardio people, as it was not enough food for the day, so the fact that I was burning between 500 and 1000 calories before 5am, meant that my body was starving itself similar to if you try and lose weight by not eating (at the low point the meal plan had me on only 1600 calories a day). It is strictly for a body building goal with little to no cardio involved.
Shortly after the 12 weeks I was out for a run and saw a lady ahead of me on the path, I had to work very hard to try and catch up and pass her (a little game I play when I am out for my runs). When I passed her I realized that she was about 60 years old and I thought WOW that is impressive. Later that day I was at safeway and I saw a lady struggling to lift her milk in the cart and although she appeared to be older I would guess that she was about the same age as the lady who had been out running. It was as I was driving home that I thought, what do I want to be able to do later on in life, still run a 10 k (or more) with a few extra pounds on, or be nice and thin and struggle to carry the milk?
It was only a couple days later that I challenged myself to see if I could run to the soccer center and back and I did a 20 mile run. Shortly after I was talking to Janaya and she said I should consider the QCM. I also knew another friend in Regina training with the running room to run his first full marathon. So, on the spur of the moment I signed up!
I was feeling really good as my first 20 mile run was on pace that I could qualify for Boston! I did another couple of great long runs 16, 18 and 20 miles and then all of a sudden I developed a week hip that started bothering me. I quickly started to go twice a week for physio and once a week for deep tissue message, it was slowly improving but then my physio loosened an SI joint that was stuck and everything started to unravel.....my whole leg developed issues as my stride was thrown off. With the now unstuck SI joint, my muscles that hadn't been used since it was stuck (potentially years) were too weak to hold it in place, so I was having to re-train and strengthen the muscles.
In the midst of training, Janaya asked if I would run the River Run with her to help her set her goal pace. I quickly agreed (I of course will do anything I can to help friends achieve their running goals), and then realized what a crazy weekend it was. I worked all week in PA and had my in-laws visiting, had a hair appt in Stoon on Saturday am, then a wedding in PA that night and then back to Stoon Sun am for the run. But, the fact that it was for Janaya and that the race package had 25% off of lulu was enough for me!
We stayed at the wedding until 9:30 and I limited it to a few drinks, I was up at 5am and on the road by 5:40 to pick Janaya and MJ up to get to the race. I let Janaya set the opening pace and she is like a antelope off the start, quick as can be she set a very fast pace up the broadway bridge. I knew what our target pace was and we tried to keep with it, and in the end I was so excited to see her set a new PB time! She worked so hard the whole 13.1 miles, it was exhilarating to run beside her and watch (although she probably wanted to throw something at me and tell me to be quiet every time I urged her on with positivity - I know I would have hated me), and cross the finish line with her. MJ was waiting for us and she too had run a PB in the 10 km.
Along the way I was able to talk to a few people and realized that a lot of people were always running right over the 2 hr mark and were wishing they knew how their pace compared to getting them to 2 hrs. At most of the smaller runs there are no pace bunnies like there are at the larger runs, yet for so many people that 2 hr mark is a big one. I realized setting a pace was something I loved to do..........in the end my previous time from April would have been near or at the top; but that didn't matter, I had so much fun and it felt amazing to run with others and help them achieve.......I may just have to investigate this pace bunny thing further for some of the smaller local races!
Thanks for running with me Sarah! You would be a GREAT pace bunny!!
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