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Vancouver Island Running Series

Posted on by Denise — No Comments ↓
Harriers Pioneer 8k race start, 12 Jan 2014

Harriers Pioneer 8k race start, 12 Jan 2014

Yesterday I competed in the second race of the 2014 Vancouver Island Running Series, aka the Frontrunners Island Race Series organized by the Vancouver Island Runners’ Association (VIRA). This series of races has been going on for years in various communities around Vancouver Island. A few months ago while running along the Nanaimo seawall, my running buddy and I were stopped by a fellow runner, in his 80s, who told us a brief history of the series and encouraged us to participate. Apparently it was started to keep runners active in winter, plus encourage girls and women to continue to run and race. A very noble cause, indeed!

The first race, in Saanichton, a couple of weeks ago, was an 8k and yesterday’s race was a 10k in Cobble Hill. In two more weeks there will be a 12k in Cedar, just south of Nanaimo. The series continues in various other locations on Vancouver Island with a race every second weekend until April. See the VIRA website for more details.

Bastion Running Club

Each race is organized by a local running group and the Nanaimo Bastion Running Club is in charge of the next one in Cedar. I have recently joined the Bastion Running Club and it a treat to belong to such a dedicated, nerdy, competitive group (I mean that in the very best way). Part of being involved with such a group means helping out with their major event. I have therefore volunteered to help with registration at the Cedar race and I very much look forward to meeting many of the competitors. Like so many of these fun events, they rely heavily on a large volunteer contingent to oversee so many activities. I’m hoping I can recruit a few of my running buddies to help out and of course to cheer us on to our best finish.

I decided to participate in this series after running the 8k race during the Victoria Marathon event in October 2013. I placed 4th in my age division and I figured I had something going there and I liked it. I also thought that what better time to do this… I’m not getting any younger and I truly love competing and believe it or not, I love the training. I guess I was blessed with the right genes for running, but it takes more than that to place in these races. It takes hard work, training, motivation, determination, coaching, some physiotherapy, when necessary, yoga, cross-training, nutritious food, knowing when to rest, sleep, etc. Need I say more? If you are a runner you get it.

If it takes that much effort to undertake this crazy racing addiction, there are a whole lot of people doing just that, especially on Vancouver Island (there are also runners from Vancouver and Washington State participating in the series)! There were 623 participants in the Saanichton race and 576 in the Cobble Hill race. Most of the age divisions have dozens of entrants. Although there a lot of Provincial and National level athletes competing in this series, I think the most impressive ones are those over 60 years young. It was very moving to participate in a standing ovation in Saanichton as the 4 runners over 80 years were presented with their prizes. I just hope I’m still able to be doing the same when I’m that age!

Island Race Series bibs and ribbons

Island Race Series bibs and ribbons

I managed to score an 8th place finish in my age category for both races, which puts me in the top third of my fellow competitors. I’m very humbled by this group of women and quite frankly honoured to be in the top 10, as they, like me are very competitive. With hard work, I’m really hoping to improve my position as the season and series goes on. Am I up for it? You betcha; I’m hungry for a top 3 medal! With the wonderful camaraderie and encouragement from my running buddies, I hope that I can do just that. So let’s get out there and run!

Posted in Running

Cross training : Swimming

Posted on by Denise — No Comments ↓

Swimming gear

Swimming gear

I love swimming. When I was a kid I was a competitive swimmer. I was also a lifeguard; taught swimming lessons; was a SCUBA diver; and participated in a myriad of water sports. But I got out of doing all those fun things while raising children and working full time. I did swim occasionally, but not in any serious way, until today. Not that it was that serious, yet…

Here’s how this all started. In December of last year, I ran with a friend who is training for an Ironman event. During the post run coffee, she was telling me about her training program. Running, swimming and cycling for kilometres at a time… I was exhausted just listening to her! I mentioned that I actually loved swimming and was quite good at it. She practically had me signed up for a tri event with her… Um, not going to happen – especially not an Ironmam. However, she mentioned that the local pool has 50 meter lanes open every Tuesday and Thursday morning so she suggested that perhaps some day we could swim after a run. I was on board with that, added it to my New Year’s Resolution list, and today we actually did it.

This morning, five of us did a beautiful 9k run through Bowen Park and Buttertubs Marsh and then my friend and I headed over to the pool. Now I must tell you, I had not swum in a pool – except hotel pools for years, so I was resigned to buying all new gear. In checking for my swimsuit the night before, I discovered I had an oh-so-chic black Speedo tucked in my drawer. I had no recollection of buying it. I’ll bet it had not been worn more than a couple of times, so it was still in good condition AND it still fit! Well, that was a good start, so all I needed was a cap and some new goggles. I picked them up at the swim shop at the pool and then committed myself to a 10 swim pass and 10 locker tokens. No excuses now.

In the water we went and seriously the first 50 meters were the hardest! But I did it and finished off 19 more lengths to complete a kilometre in the pool. Wow, that felt great! Swimming is so good for upper body movement, flexibility and strength. Plus it can be a great cardio workout (I was amazed that I was still sweating after showering, dressing and leaving the building).

One thing that came back to me from a great coach I had so many years ago, was how important kicking is when doing the front crawl. It is your propulsion unit and keeps your body streamlined while lessoning drag. All these parts combined make swimming a fabulous and wonderful cross training exercise for runners. If you are not a swimmer, I’d advise that you get some gear (it is pretty minimal), take some lessons, and get swimming!

I’m so happy I discovered my passion for swimming again after so many years. Who knows a short triathlon might actually be in my future.

Posted in Cross training, Running, Swimming

New Year’s Resolutions

Posted on by Denise — No Comments ↓

I sat down today to check on my electronic life with my cats

Tiger and Joey - completely relaxed.

Tiger and Joey – completely relaxed.


and a nice cup of tea,
Iron Goddess tea, how appropriate!

Iron Goddess tea, how appropriate!


along with a few left over bits of Christmas baking (hey, someone has to eat them and once they are gone… no more sweets in my kitchen!),
Christmas goodies.

Christmas goodies.


when I read yet another New Year’s Resolutions post on Facebook. The article, “Fifteen things Canadians can do to be healthier this year“, both intrigued and spoke to me, and not just because of the cute images, but because each of the “things” was contributed by a well known and/or authoritative Canadian.

Shake a leg (from Globe and Mail article)

Shake a leg (from Globe and Mail article)

Not surprisingly a third of the suggestions had to do with exercise or a bit more than a third if the items about wearing a helmet (presumably for skiing, skating, sailing, skateboarding, etc.) or the one about breathing (aka meditation) are included in this group. The remaining topics were about food or other lifestyle choices. Amazingly there was no direct mention about stopping one’s sugar intake as was mentioned in a different article I read recently, unless, the suggestion to “Clean up your kitchen” by “minimizing foods that have been processed” can apply to sugar consumption. Anyway, I’m going to give that a try.

Of course I loved all the exercise contributions, but my favourite one, perhaps because of its humorous twist was “Try a revolutionary ‘new’ treatment” by Mike Evans, staff physician at St. Michael’s Hospital, associate professor of family medicine and public health at the University of Toronto. His concluding statement says it all: “If I had to pick one thing, I’d say movement is the best medicine.” The piece, “Shake a leg”, by Greg Wells, assistant professor at the University of Toronto and associate scientist of physiology and experimental medicine, the Hospital for Sick Children, pretty much says the same thing, but I believe multiple reminders to get up and move are worth repeating over and over again.

The items by Simon Whitfield, Olympic gold and silver medalist in the triathlon, “Invest in yourself”, and “Take it outside”, by Raymond Lam, professor of psychiatry at the University of British Columbia and director of the Mood Disorders Centre, UBC Hospital, speak to me in so many ways. Both of these are credences that I live by and I can highly recommend.

There are so many ways to articulate New Year’s Resolutions, but for me, I’m going to carry on exercising and trying to find balance in my life, through proper eating, yoga, travel, reading, meditation, cat hugging, dog petting, friendships, family ties…. All the good things in life and none of the bad.

Wishing you all the best for 2014.

Posted in Something New

Cross training : skating

Posted on by Denise — 2 Comments ↓

When I was a kid, winters were cold, at least 8 months long and I learned to skate on a flooded backyard ice surface. Oh how quintessentially Canadian! I love skating, but don’t skate nearly enough these days. My son (who grew up in coastal British Columbia, where “real” snow-covered and sub-zero winters last about 2 days) and I have adopted an annual tradition of skating together during the Christmas holiday season at one of the local ice arenas. The rink is decorated with festive lighting, and only costs a Loonie entrance fee and that includes the skate rental… Such a deal!

Loving skating!

Loving skating!

This year was no exception, we hit the ice arena again, paid our Loonie, laced up our skates and prepared to have fun. Now, true confession time… I always insist that we go early and not just to beat the rush, but so that I can see the Zamboni. I have such an enormous love for these wonderful machines and not just for their obvious functionality: scraping and flooding the surface to make it oh so smooth. In the places I skated when I was a kid: backyard rinks, outdoor arenas, small town indoor arenas, and frozen ponds, there were no such miracle machines.

Arena with festive lighting and a Zamboni.

Arena with festive lighting and a Zamboni.

I attribute Charles Shultz and the Peanuts cartoon for fostering my love of the Zamboni. Who else recalls Woodstock cleaning the ice on the frozen bird bath so that Snoopy and the other birds could play hockey? And what a great name for an ice making machine, Zamboni… it makes my mouth smile just saying it! I could tell you all sorts of facts about the Zamboni, all learned from the book Zamboni: The Coolest Machines on Ice, by Eric Dregni (2006), but I digress. However, I will tell you a bit of trivia… The Zamboni was NOT invented in Canada, as you might assume, but in the most unlikely place, Paramount, California. And I will also tell you that last winter a very good friend of mine arranged for me to ride on a Zamboni between periods of a pick-up hockey game. Best present ever or at least on par with a gift of a (much smaller) remote control Zamboni. Oh and yes, I do sing the “I Wanna Drive a Zamboni” song frequently.

Anyway, back to skating. Round and round my son and I skated to music; first one direction and then the other, stopping, starting, crossing-over, skating backwards and falling at least once (yes, there was bruising). It was so much fun and oh, yes, the point of this post is that skating is an excellent cross training exercise. I figure we covered at least 2k during our skating session.

For a full-on exercise program, someday I would love to skate on the Rideau Canal Skateway in Ottawa where one can skate for 7.8 kilometres on the longest outdoor ice rink in the world. Not that I haven’t tried. I was there a few winters ago with a friend and we tried three times to skate on the canal: the first time it was -25C (too cold), the second time it was +5C (too warm), and the third time there was a meter of snow on the surface. Alas, but I vow to someday having the pleasure of skating the entire length of the Canal and to check out the Zamboni-like ice resurfacing machine used to smooth it all.

Posted in Cross training

MapMyRun

Posted on by Denise — No Comments ↓

MapMyRun app logo

MapMyRun app logo

I use an iPhone app called MapMyRun. It taps into the iPhone GPS and records my outdoor workouts. It specifically records the time, distance, elevation gain (great for running up mountains), pace and lays the route out on an interactive map. It can be set up to give you feedback as you run at each kilometre, plus it will tell you how many calories you have burned (so you know you can justify that post run Sunday brunch).

I started using this app in January 2013, just about the same time I was ramping up the number of and distances I was running, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and climbing. I mapped a lot of these adventures, especially the ones where we’d say “Let’s just go out 5k and come back the same route”, i.e. usually on pretty random routes where there were no trail signs or directions, aka adventure runs. It really helped keep us from getting lost many times. I generally not use the app on training speed workouts or races or just quick runs around my neighbourhood or, um, when my iPhone was out of juice. I would say overall that I used it on about half of my outings.

MapMyRun - typical Newcastle Island route

MapMyRun – typical Newcastle Island route

Well, what a surprise I got when an email arrived a few days ago telling me that I had completed 75 workouts using MapMyRun. I apparently covered almost 755k, over 133hrs, oh, and burned almost 54,000 calories. WOW! If I estimate that I only used this app for half my workouts then I probably completed about 150 outdoor fitness adventures from January to November, covering about 1500k. Doing the math, that is an average of 3 per week. Yup, that is about right, at least in the beginning and there were some weeks when I ran everyday. Now I run at least 5 times per week, so it would not surprise me if the next 75 workouts occur much sooner, although, I still don’t map every run, especially on trails that I’m very familiar with.

This is a very handy app, which also allows you to share your run results with others and on Facebook or Twitter, but at the moment I prefer to keep these private. If the routes are shared other MapMyRun users can see them and use them to locate routes. Someday I may start sharing my running routes with the world.

One feature I do love about this app is the positive reinforcement you get at the end of the run: a smiley face with “Good Job!” on the screen. Makes it all seem worthwhile getting up, getting dressed, and getting out!

Posted in Running, Something New, Trails