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Running and Ranting

Posted on by Denise — 1 Comment ↓

imageIn Canada, Rick Mercer is the king of ranting. He usually rants about politics, at all levels; federal, provincial, and municipal. To me he is the consummate ranter and you know what else I like about him? He walks and rants at the same time and appears to not run out of breath even though he seems to be walking quite quickly past amazingly colourful graffiti.

Ranting is a good way to release frustrations. Of course, it is always better to do this with another person rather than by yourself. Rick not only shares his rant with the cameraman, but also with about 20 million other people. Ranting on your own can sometimes work if done in private, but not when you are out walking or running by yourself. That is not a pretty sight and it might cause others to be concerned about you…

So here’s the formula for the best ranting. Invite a friend for a run on a nice trail and innocently bring up a topic such as Rob Ford or the Northern Gateway Pipeline, smart meters, the provincial or federal government, etc., and away you go. I mean seriously, who does not have an opinion about any of those topics? Rant away! Occasionally, depending on the topic, there may be laughter involved. Laughing and running gives you bonus cardio points! Before you know it you will have run 10k and you will have either solved the problem or laughed yourself silly at the ridiculousness of the situation or vowed to write a letter to someone in charge.

Get out there and do your best Rick Mercer-like rant and run and you will feel so much better for it. Um, one more tip, when running with a friend, the rant is a two way thing… You both get to weigh in, so don’t be a rant dominator; be sure to listen to each other.

I grabbed the above image from the Internet… To the artist… Thank you and apologies for not knowing your name.

Posted in Running

Yoga practice dedication

Posted on by Denise — 3 Comments ↓

When I first started running, I loved how my lungs, heart, and legs got stronger. And bonus, over time, my butt shrank in size after all those years of sitting at a desk. I soon got into the running groove and felt all-over healthier. Then I added yoga to the mix. Arms, core, and back were being attended to as well as balance. Wow, now there was the complete package!

But wait, there was one more area that developed and it has perhaps become the best part of all. The combination of both running and yoga has both settled and expanded my mind. Doing one or both of these activities with friends really helps with motivation and I am very grateful to have friends who love to run and practice yoga. I have also found the mental strength to easily do these by myself, i.e. get out of bed, get the shoes on, and get out the door, and that is a good thing. When you know how good you will feel after running or yoga (or any other physical activity) you are more likely to do it without excuses.

Yoga offers lots of opportunity for mindfulness, other than flat-on-your-back meditation during Shavasana (corpse pose). Often at the beginning of a yoga class, the instructor suggests we find an intension for our practice. At first I did not quite know what that meant, other than saying something to myself like, “I intend to do every pose the instructor guides me through” or “I will do my best not to fart in class today.” It wasn’t until one instructor suggested that if we could not think of an intension, we could dedicate our practice to world peace. That worked for me.

After that, I begun to think about this whole intension thing a bit more. I began dedicating my practice to friends who were ill or super stressed or even to areas of the world under duress (hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, wars, etc.). Sending out good vibes into the world and specifically towards a loved one, while I twisted and stretched my body (and was grateful to be able to do so), seemed to work its magic in some small way.

So in the spirit of projecting positive thoughts to someone in need, I dedicated today’s practice to Sebastian an adorable Jack Russell Terrier. (Although I have 2 cats and consider myself a cat person, I love Jack Russell dogs… They are a marvellous combination of muscle and playfulness in one tough little package.) Sebastian lives with my friend Tim in Toronto. Here’s a photo of Sebastian from Tim’s Facebook page (photo credit to Tim, without asking):

Sebastian

Sebastian


Tim has been posting photos of Sebastian on Facebook ever since they came together a few years ago, but recently the number of photos and videos went up remarkably. Here’s what happened to Sebastian to warrant so much attention (from Tim’s Facebook post on Nov 6 and included with a video of Sebastian doing water therapy):

He jumped off a second story deck, over the railing! Landed badly, to say the least. Contusion of the spinal cord. Couldn’t move his legs for the first day. Was very worried. Things are looking better now!

Since then Sebastian has done all sorts of therapy, including going to the country and running (as best he could) in a field with other dogs and is looking much better. What’s not to like about fresh country air for healing the body and the soul?

To demonstrate my dogged attention to Sebastion, I offer up these therapeutic photos from today’s yoga class (taken by Stephanie Green, owner of OmTown Yoga in Nanaimo, BC):

Downward Facing Dog pose

Downward Facing Dog pose

Upward Facing Dog pose

Upward Facing Dog pose

Fire Hydrant Pose

Fire Hydrant pose

I’m sending these out to Tim and Sebastian and wishing Sebastian a full recovery so he can run with the wind in his ears and meditate on how to best lie in the warm sun. Just like I do to for complete physical and mental well being!

Posted in Cross training, Running, Yoga

Salish Trail

Posted on by Denise — No Comments ↓

Alison running the Salish Trail

Alison running the Salish Trail

I love trail running! I was in Vancouver recently and my running buddy, Alison and I decided that it would be fun to run some of the trails in Pacific Spirit Regional Park near the University of British Columbia campus. I’d run some of these before, starting from NorthWest Marine Drive, but not starting on the south side. We parked the car on Camosun Street at Southwest Marine Drive and ventured into the Park. After studying the large Park Map we chose the Salish Trail from a myriad of trails throughout the park. This particular trail transects the park allowing plenty of opportunity for detours or one very long run from one “corner” of the Park to the other.

Also of note near the large map was a poster with a composite sketch and description of the suspect in a string of recent sexual assaults at the University of British Columbia. This is perhaps why we saw female runners and walkers in pairs along the trail. Safety in numbers, I guess.

The Salish Trail is wide and passes through a lush second growth Douglas Fir forest, as well as borders Ecological Reserve #74, which is an ecologically sensitive area and not open to the public. Our trail was very well signed and well used as are all the Park trails. It is designated a “mulit-use” trail, which means we could potentially see runners, walkers, cyclists, horses and riders and off-leash (but apparently under control) dogs. How wonderful! Although apparently the dogs are only allowed off leash from the beginning of October until the end of February. Oh and by-the-way, commercial dog walkers are not welcomed! Who makes these rules? I sense there is a back story there. We did not see cyclists or horses, but there were plenty of off-leash and well controlled dogs as well as runners and walkers all having a lovely time in the urban wilderness.

Pacific Spirit Regional Park used to be part the University Endowment Lands, but in 1989 the large undeveloped area (763 hectares) was conveyed by the Province of British Columbia in 1989 to the Greater Vancouver Regional District (Metro Vancouver) for the creation of the Park. Its adjacency to the University of British Columbia, Musqueam First Nation lands, and residential areas, such as Southlands (where numerous horse stables can be found), make this a very popular and well used Park.

Our run along the Salish Trail was just over 4k as far as 16th Ave, at which point we turned and ran back the same way we had come, finishing off a wonderful 8+k run. I would definitely do this run again and might even complete the whole length of the Trail to the north side ending at Spanish Banks the next time. There are also so many potential detours off the Salish Trail, that running all the trails in this Park could take years to do, thus providing plenty of excuses to return again and again!

Posted in Running Tagged with:

Cooperative Ultramarathon

Posted on by Denise — No Comments ↓

No I’m not an Ultramarathoner, nor even a marathoner. I’m very happy to be a middle distance runner. However, in the last 8 days I have run 80k along with a team of others. It was Pam’s idea. She has a friend, Sally, in the Peace Corp Volunteers in Ethiopia. Sally’s fellow Peace Corp Volunteers decided to raise funds for Ethiopian education and to do this they would run a distance of 282k from Hawzen to Alamata in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia. The trek would take place over 8 days (from Oct 31 to Nov 7) and at each stop the group would give a seminar on HIV/AIDS awareness in the local villages.

The group completed the trek on Thursday this week. Here’s a photo from their Facebook page showing the finish. Not spectacular or showy, but an amazing accomplishment they can be proud of.

Tigray Trek 282 finish line (from TigrayTrek282 Facebook page)

Tigray Trek 282 finish line (from TigrayTrek282 Facebook page)

Getting back to Pam and Protection Island on the other side of the world… she suggested to her running buddies that we also run 282k, in support of the Tigray Peace Corp Volunteers, but we would do our run cooperatively. There were 5 or so of us in the conversation and doing the math we roughed out that we would each have to run 56k over the course of the 8 days or about 7k per day. We all agreed to do our best. Then we thought the rest of the island population might want to get involved.

So Pam posted a notice about the event on our local email list and we started running. The first day we clocked over 60k, thanks to Penny’s 35k marathon training run. I posted this result on our community email list and others started sending in their distances. Walkers asked if they could contribute too. We welcomed them gladly! By the time we reached day 4 our island walkers and the runners – up to 20 of us – had clocked over 300k collectively.

Protection Island Runners (photo by Pam Murray)

Protection Island Runners (photo by Pam Murray)

As the days progressed, I passed on to our community daily posts of our total distance, number of participants, as well as news from the Tigray folks and Pam passed our news back to the Tigray folks. At the end of the 8th day, our Island had collectively run or walked over 600k, with 37 participants! I’m not sure how much money we raised for the Ethiopian educational cause, as we encouraged individuals to submit online, but the community spirit was very high and hopefully it was felt on the other side of the world.

Our community seemed to really rally to the whole fun event. People chatted about it and sent me emails with the distances they covered or they told me where they walked or ran and I calculated the distance. On it went to a Google Drive spreadsheet and I replied to each email with an thank you and words of encouragement. It really paid off. Now I’m thinking about the next fitness program to offer in order to keep the wonderful fitness effort and spirit continuing. Yeah team and thank you Pam!

Posted in Running

Runner’s toes

Posted on by Denise — 2 Comments ↓

Have you ever wondered why female runners ALWAYS wear nail polish on their toes? I’m willing to bet, based on personal experience, that it is most likely because of bruised toe nails. Apparently, it happens to many runners and it happened to me for the first time this year when I ramping up my training.

Runner's toes

Runner’s toes, not a pretty sight!


The cause, in my case was from two different shoes, one too tight and the other too loose. The too tight shoe caused the damage to the longest toe – my second toe – and the too loose shoe promoted the big toe bruising. I know this, because I switched shoes part way through my training; from a shoe that was too tight to one that was obviously too loose, but felt much better. Of course the overall problem was most likely running 3 or 4 times per week, with most of the speed work either on pavement or the track.

This condition is not restricted to runners; it also apparently occurs in tennis players and skiers and I’ll be willing to bet badminton and racquetball players, too. Whatever the cause, the skin bruises and bleeds underneath the nail. If there is enough damage, the toenail may fall off. And I’m not pleased to report, that appears to be my fate or at least it is heading that way. I’m trying hard to keep the nail on as long as possible until the new nail develops underneath. It is becoming loose, so I may be taping it soon. Yes, I’ve had experience with this before, but if I recall it was from a stubbed toe, when I inadvertently kicked a chair leg, and not from running.

I’ve been trying to keep the toe trimmed and the pressure relieved by cleaning away any loose blood under the toe bed. I also tend to live in bare feet or flip flops when I’m not running, so my toes get plenty of air circulation. With the colder weather and more sock and shoe wearing, I’m being a bit more cautious and monitoring the damaged toes a bit more. Apparently in severe cases this problem can lead to infection, swelling and pain. Luckily, I’ve had none of that and have not let it interfere with my running.

An article by Dr. Jim Brown, on the Core Performance website about Runner’s Toe suggests a few ways to avoid Runner’s toes, other than stop running (not going to happen):

  • Wear running shoes that are at least one-half size larger than your street shoes.
  • Trim your toenails regularly and straight across, but not so short that the remaining nail or nail bed is exposed to shoe/toe irritation.
  • Keep your feet as dry as possible (wear socks than wick moisture away from the skin).
  • Lace your shoes more tightly if you run downhill regularly to prevent excessive movement and friction.

I’m not sure about the first suggestion for me currently, as I’m convinced that the larger shoe caused the problem to my big toe. However, I think I can tighten the laces, as suggested in the last point, to hopefully prevent further cases. Of course, it will be while before the new nails grow in and by then I’ll probably have new shoes. But I will take all of this into consideration when testing out the next pair.

It is interesting that the damage only occurred in one foot. Perhaps I put too much pressure on that foot when I run… Who knows? Perhaps some assessment is needed to determine that. In the meantime, there is a colour choice to be made: purple, red or burgundy polish to cover up the black and blue.

Posted in Feet, Running