Flagstaff > Nanaimo > Rotterdam

Where in the world am I? This last month has been a whirlwind of experiences and I wouldn't change it for the world. Last I checked in I was midway through my Altitude Stint in Flagstaff Arizona. Normally I am there alone (since my coach hasn't been able to join me for the last 2 years) so it was a nice change to be there at the same time as fellow Canadian Lanni Marchant (everyone knows who she is). Thankfully I had her there for the first 3 weeks of my trip, with the last week being solo.

It was quite the change to go from always running solo back home to having a daily run buddy but it was such a good change that it was then weird to go back to solo. Amy Van Alstine was very kind in offering me to join in with NAZ elite; however, none of our easy days seemed to match up. While in Flagstaff I was able to catch the Bagel Run each of the 4 weeks which was always fun. If you catch yourself in town on Thursday mornings, head to Biff's Bagels downtown at 8am.



Shortly after my last blog I had my longest/hardest workout of the marathon build. I arrived back to the house after with many text messages from my sister trying to get ahold of me. Apparently my Grandma (last remaining Grandparent) was failing and she wanted me to know in case I wanted to call. In the 2.5 hours I was gone, it went from Grandma having a few hours left to receiving an email from my Aunt that she had passed peacefully about an hour before I got back. Poor Lanni walked into my room to ask about my workout and I think it went like "how did your workout g......." as she saw I was in tears. Ultimately it was a good thing as my Grandma suffered for years with Dementia and simply was not the same woman anymore. She passed exactly 1 week before her 89th birthday. Rest in Peace Grandma.

 

Old Picture but this is how I remember her



The rest of my time was spent with too much time on social media where #RyanSnaps was trying to convince me to run the Barkley Marathons. Umm yeah no, especially not after watching that on Netflix. I do not care if I could be the first Canadian to finish it or even the first woman to finish it.

Day hike to Devil's Bridge in Sedona



I also caught up with the Team Run Eugene BBQ for a quick night out. Even though I think I only met a couple of the actual team members, thanks for having runners out.

Sadly though my time in Flag came to an end and I had to pack up and leave on March 30th. I know I have said it before but the running community in Flag is simply AMAZING. Even though I always know I am coming back, I am always sad to leave. Not to mention I simply suck at goodbyes. I'd prefer to sneak out of town then actually say goodbye or even see you later. I say goodbye and there's a HUGE chance of tears. Yep, I'm a suck. Some good people in Flag that's for sure. I'll be back.

Dinner at Diablo on the last night

The last 2 days in Flag were actually filled with tons of wind and some snow. Those runs were freaking cold. My hands took the brunt of it, even with gloves. The day before I left, I ran with Canadian (and Vancouverite) Natasha Wodak as she had just arrived to town. Natasha and I go WAAAAAAY back. My claim to fame is that I did used to beat her. Sure we were like 12 or 13 but still it happened. ;) We tried to take some pictures and my fingers were way too frozen to even press the button on the remote so I had to pass that job over to Natasha. I ended up with pictures of the sky, and my stomach etc. Apparently she went "button happy" and pressed it at random times. Haha. But we did end up with some good ones.

Good Pics with Tasha

 

Last Day, Last Run



March 30th I flew out from Flag to Phoenix and were on the same flight as Steph and Ben Bruce (plus their adorable kids) as they were heading over to Stanford where Steph CRUSHED the US Olympic Trials Standard and snuck in under Olympic Standard only 6 months after having her 2nd baby! HUGE congrats Steph. We talked in the airport about hopefully getting it out of the way so you didn't have to do too many track 10k's. Glad it actually happened. Also got to finally meet the famous Oiselle star Sarah Robinson and her daughter PJ.

Aug 2012 - March 2016 = 5 trips to Flag



I flew Flag > Phoenix > Seattle > Vancouver. The lovely Catherine Watkins picked me up at the airport at 8pm and I spent the night at her place because the 9pm ferry to the island was impossible to make and I really did not want to take the 10:45pm ferry which would have gotten me home at 1am. #islandlifeproblems

I totally travel is style aka Capri tights and compression socks



The next morning I hit up an 8x1k workout at the UBC track and while it felt great to be at sea level and have oxygen, the legs were definitely feeling the travel. From there, it was a quick shower and then off to the 12:30pm ferry home. Very thankful to my friend Jason who was able to pick me up at the ferry and take me home and also thankful to my chiro Dr. Abe Avender who was able to move my appointment from 3pm to 5:15pm as there was no way I was going to be able to make that 3pm time slot!

Sea level!



The day I got home was busy. So much so I was barely home. I walked in the door, found my delivered shoes from Asics, went through my mail oh and of course said hi to my cats even if they were apparently snubbing me for leaving them for a month. I had a proper shower and then was off to my chiro appointment and then to give a quick talk to the Running Room half and full marathon clinic. After the talk I did their 3.5k warm up and then hung around while they did their own workout of km repeats. Some food and then a few groceries on the way home meant I really didn't get home until after 9pm.

I was then home Friday, Saturday and Sunday (filled with errands, running and chiro) and oh right, finding out that I was being laid off from my job as of September 30th once again. April 1st, 2014 my entire work was fired and we were able to re-apply for our own jobs as a reduced rate with reduced benefits and loss of seniority etc. I was hired back and then bam, April 1st, 2016 it happens again. This time they are selling the building and contracting out the workers, so even if I wanted my job back, I'd have to re-apply with another company and have my wages and benefits reduced even more. 8 years there this August, so it's slightly disappointing; however, I am trying not to worry about it until after the race. My Grandma, the layoff and other major stuff going on in my life, this is NOT the time for it. Ugh.

Unpack the bottom 2 and repack the top 1





Anyways I was able to also catch up on Dragons Den and see my sponsor Stoked Oats get a deal! Not surprising as it's a yummy product! Then Sunday night I found myself finally unpacking from Flag and repacking for Rotterdam. I left Nanaimo again at 8:10am on Monday morning (Thanks for the ride to the airport Mom).

Stoked Oats Getting the Deal

 

Ready to Leave Vancouver

 

 



This time travel took me Nanaimo > Vancouver > Toronto > Amsterdam. Travel was pretty uneventful. The nice Air Canada attendant in Nanaimo was able to get me an exit row seat from Toronto to Amsterdam (Glad I never paid the $100 upgrade the night before when checking in). I was hoping to sleep from the Toronto to Amsterdam flight as I left Toronto just before 9pm Eastern but I think maybe I slept only 2-3 hours of broken sleep.



The lovely Air Canada flight attendant was great and she did her best to get me comfortable with bringing me 2 extra AC blankets and then a nice AC duvet but who the heck can sleep sitting up on airplanes. It wreaked havoc on my back after too long. It was great to have the legroom but I would have preferred an empty seat next to me like a few people had a the back of the plane. Oh well, I survived and landed in Amsterdam shortly after 9:30am local time Tuesday. We then had to wait 10-15 minutes for our gate to open and then the slowest customs process ever (clearly chose the wrong lane).

From there I eventually met up with fellow Canadian Leslie Sexton who had landed not long before me from her flights. We were able to figure out how to catch the train to Rotterdam only with a minor error (apparently we sat in First Class instead of regular). How dare we sit in red seats vs blue. We got to our initial hotel shortly after noon and had an hour to kill before we were able to check in so we grabbed some lunch (thankful for English menus). We did a bit of walking around before our eventual run later that afternoon and boy did that feel awful. Plus we got a little lost trying to find a local park which we both found the following day.

Rotterdam



My goal was to stay up until bed time which I managed until 10pm and then I crashed (on and off as usual) until 8am when the noise outside the hotel kept waking me up. Wednesday we grabbed our Athlete passes so we could have our food covered and just laid low other than our final workouts at Kralingse Bos. I apparently picked the wrong time of day to go do it, has for my actual workout I was hit with a downpour and crazy winds. The workout went well considering.

Post last workout

Thursday after we changed hotels and checked into the race hotel (Hilton) and celebrated how we finally had a proper flushing toilet, an actual good shower, facecloths and internet that didn't cut out (can you see our first hotel was low budget?) we did some touring around and checked out the Erasmusbrug Bridge and Euromast which gave spectacular views of Rotterdam. You go 100m up where you can then take the Euroscoop to the top which is 185m.

Easy Run

 

Erasmusbrug Bridge

 

Euromast

Friday all we did was check out the race expo and eat carbs, lots of carbs. The race expo took probably 10 minutes to walk to and from and I think we spent about 10 minutes (if that) in the actual expo.

Leslie and I



That brings us to now, Saturday at 10:30am where we have eaten breakfast and are now chilling before we head out on our final short shakeout run. The rest of the day will be spent lying around and resting up (other than meals and the Tech Meeting today at 5pm). In 24 hours I will be 30 minutes into the race (eek).

Goals? Some people know and I'll leave it at that. There are times being posted on social media and I will NOT confirm those times as my goal. Enough said. Alright, time to chill and try to keep the nerves in check.

 

 Think these will work for the race?

 

 

SnapChat, Netflix and 7000ft

Here we are the middle of March already. This past Sunday marked 4 weeks until Rotterdam and made me think where did time go. Good news is that I feel fitter and healthier than I did in September prior to when I ran the Victoria Marathon. Definitely a good sign of things to come. 

The middle of March also marks the halfway marker of my latest altitude training stint in Flagstaff, Arizona. Anyone who knows me probably has realized I tend to disappear off to Arizona prior to my main goal races so to most it was expected. This is my 5th time here since my initial trip back in August 2012. Each time I fall more and more in love with Flagstaff. It's so nice to pass other runners out on every single run and this is the time of year when everyone arrives in flocks. With spring marathons coming up and outdoor track season about to begin, Flag is the place to be. 

The difference this time is that the timing of my trip corresponded well with when Lanni Marchant is in town and since we stay at the same house, that has meant many many runs together. Coming from training pretty much 100% solo back home, it's been a nice change to have someone there. While our workouts don't match up (obviously due to different goals), we coordinate as much as possible for everything else. Whether it be simply be like today where I do a warm up with Lanni and then when she does her workout, I continue on my easy run or vise versa. I will say, that one of us tends to dress much warmer than the other (hint: not me). I actually find it quite amusing, though I give her a bit of an excuse with her having just come from Kenya.

Training stints tend to be pretty relaxed. A lot of time is spent on the feet running but is counteracted with a lot of time lying around. Netfllix and SnapChat seem to keep us entertained (when Lanni isn't working on a case). Call us weird, but yes we have been known to send SnapChat's or texts to each other, even though we are in rooms to each other. Thanks to SnapChat for updating the filters daily. 

Aside from SnapChat, training has been going well. One of my coaches favourite workouts to do up here is 10 x 3 minutes (with 90 seconds jog) at around 10k effort. I am sure I have done this workout each time I have been up here and while time has obviously been progressing to faster results each attempt (due to obvious improvements fitness wise), I finally rocked the sh!t out of the workout this past Wednesday. 

By that, I meant I kept the splits fairly consistent, the fastest I have run the workout and also didn't feel like I was dying or having my heart explode through my chest. I have one big workout left this weekend and it is a repeat of one I did last September that had me e-mailing my coach and telling him that I hated him. It's a brutal workout and I am somewhat dreading it, but I hope I can rock the sh!t out of that one too (stay tuned). 

Position after my almost 22 miler last weekend on Walnut Canyon Rd

 

The only downside of Flagstaff in the spring is the wind. It's hit or miss. Sometimes if you put up with the cooler temps of the morning, you can get out and avoid the wind. In the later morning the wind picks up and can get quite gusty. Many a times Lanni and I have told the wind where to go. Still, the crappy wind aside, I am loving the sunshine (other than the minor attempt to snow one day) and am glad I missed the wet coast storms that blew through home the last few weeks. 

Just over 3 weeks till Rotterdam....... oy vey! I've included a few more photos below. 

Round and Round I go

Cool mornings but once the sun comes up it warms up fast

First Fartlek Workout

 

Dinner Time (yes that's Cards Against Humanity- stupid Ghost Hand)

I don't want to preach and annoy people, but reminder for those interested in purchasing Sundog Sunglasses, discount is good until March 31st, 2016

Flagstaff Recap and Marathon Annoucement

Upon racing the Kelowna Wine Country Half Marathon on September 6^th, I headed off bright and early the next morning for Flagstaff. This marked my 4^th trip to altitude (August 2012, September 2013 and April 2014). I was a bit leery heading to Flagstaff this time around and even whined to coach Matt that I didn’t want to go. Reason being was because my body was hurting me and I was a tad worried that I was on the borderline of another injury.

Kelowna Finish



See you later Kelowna



As I mentioned in my previous blog, I had some x-rays taken on the Thursday prior to the race and hadn’t heard back by close of office hours on Friday. With Monday being a holiday I also never heard that day, so I made sure to send an e-mail to my doctors office on the Tuesday asking for results. They responded back promptly with a scan of the results stating that there was no issue. That was good news, but I also knew deep down that my body still hurt and that x-rays don’t always catch stress fractures.

I spy the Rockies

Hello T-Hof

In Calgary. My plan certainly was not as cool as the Disney plane.

I arrived in Flagstaff after having a bit of drama with the car rental, though thankfully I had pre-booked with 2 companies and neither requested credit card details so when I didn’t like the hidden fees with the first one I went on to the 2^nd one. This delayed my arrival slightly, so when I arrived I had a quick tour of the house from Jonny and then went off on a shakeout run before hitting the grocery store for some solid food. Let me tell you, airport food was lacking on this trip. Calgary didn’t have much once you went through security (I flew Kelowna – Calgary – Phoenix).

Oh Flagstaff how I missed you



Ooh that first shakeout hurt. Well technically the lungs weren't too bad, but the legs were a different story. Actually the first few days hurt. My quads had taken a pounding from the downhills on the course. Good thing the house had stairs in it. I might have had to walk down them sideways on the odd occasion.

Duck Pond



A few days after being there I decided to go see my chiro away from home, aka Dr. AJ Gregg and hoped that he could sort out what was going on with my hips and why I was feeling familiar pains from when I had a stress fracture a year ago. AJ was fairly sure that it wasn’t a fracture and that if it was, it was very slight. He offered to get me some imaging but I decided to hold off and see what happened.

Many runs in the first few days resulted in feeling like this

Thankfully the runs turned into more like this




In the meantime he found some pretty good tightness in my left hip and went hard at loosening it. Let me tell you, I have seen AJ the last 3 trips I have been to Flagstaff and he is the only therapist I have seen that has made me want to punch them. Is that a good thing you may ask? Well he brings on good pain. It hurts like a beotch at the time and certainly takes my breath away and leaves me practically shaking, but in the end, it pays off. Boy that hip was tender for a few days though.

Eating dirt on Woody Mnt Rd



As the days ticked by running got easier and the body got better. It was funny how I went from telling Matt I didn’t know how I was going to go from a 75 minute run to a 2 hour 30 minute run as I couldn’t imagine doubling my time running, but that 35km run was when I suddenly hit my groove and felt great. Slowly most of the aches and pains disappeared (for the most part) and I was able to hit my biggest mileage week in a long time.

In my Happy Place



For most of the initial 2 weeks I concentrated on running and recovery and spent a lot of time with my feet up watching Netflix. Then Lanni Marchant came into town and I was able to hook her up with staying at the same house as me. This made it much easier to connect for runs and I was able to show her a few trails nearby the house so that she had a bit of an idea of where to run after I left.

Bagel Run Canadian Take Over (Adam, Dylan, myself, Lanni, Brendan, Rob)



Lanni and I



Also during my last week I connected with some Canadian boys from out east, including Adam Hortian, Brendan Hancock and Rob Brouillette. They even convinced me to enter a dark underground cave, which might I say was quite the experience. We might have been slightly under prepared, dressed in shorts and having 3 sources of lights from cell phones and tablets but we all survived.

Lava Cave Adventures

The Entrance





The last week was certainly filled with more fun which is normal when I go to Flagstaff. Generally I always spend the first few weeks concentrating on running. Then I do a bit of exploring near the end. As usual I didn’t want to leave Flagstaff. There is a reason I always call it my second home. It is somewhere that I could see myself living. The running community there is just unreal. Now now Nanaimoites, don’t get upset, I know there is a good running community here in town too but sometimes I just don’t feel as though I quite fit in.

Climbing rocks in Sedona with Rob and Brendan (missed you Adam)

As high as I got. The boys went slightly higher as they are crazy.

Brendan, myself and Rob

Needed an updated Sedona shot

 

Moon when leaving the Sedona Track

Made some other friends while in Flagstaff




And watched some sunsets from the Snowbowl




Or from closer to home


Funny though how I initially didn’t want to go to Flagstaff and wanted to hang around and run my usual routes and then in the end I didn’t want to leave Flagstaff. Don’t get me wrong, the west coast and Vancouver Island is beautiful and I love seeing all the fall colours here, but I miss the endless amounts of dirt roads and trails of Arizona. We have trails here but it’s just not the same. Funny me saying that considering I am 100% not a trail runner.

Track Work



So here we have it, I am back to my reality (aka island life and work) and all the major marathon training is done. Where does that take me now? I suppose some of you may wish to know which marathon I am actually debuting at. Certain people have been in the know for a while now, but I have avoided making it public. Why you might ask? Well for one I had tons of niggles going on and I wasn’t even sure I was going to make the start line. I did not want to announce my marathon debut and then pull out of the event. A good part of racing the marathon is simply getting through the training and getting on that start line. I now feel confident that I will be on that start line to give it the best shot I can.

Traveling Home in Style

Back at Sea Level (my Island Home)



I suppose you still want to know what marathon start line I will be standing on eh?

I am excited to announce that I will be on the start line for the 2015 Goodlife Fitness Victoria Marathon this coming Sunday on October 11^th. See you on the line and hopefully at the finish!

Till we meet again Flagstaff