Friday night, the beginning of the weekend, one of my favorite times, and I can't have my usual beer (or two) because I'm on antibiotics for a week. Annoying, but it's better than being sick.

That cold I mentioned last time? The one that just seemed to keep hanging on? Well, maybe it started out as a cold but it's actually a sinus infection, something I've never had before. And would have been just as happy to skip this time, too. Although in a way I'm relieved that there really is something wrong beyond a simple cold, because it was getting to the point where it just didn't make sense that things weren't really getting any better. This morning I was running (on the treadmill, more about that in a bit) and the area of my left sinus was really starting to hurt. You know that cold you occasionally get from ice cream? Like that, although not as intense. But it kind of eased, and I sort of put it out of my mind, but then as the day wore on there was some pain on both sides, which felt different from simple congestion, and I was coughing, still with the runny nose and post-nasal drip, and just all around miserable. About 2:30 it suddenly occurred to me that this could be a sinus infection (why, I don't know) and when I googled the list of symptoms, it was pretty much a matter of checking each of them off in turn. Fortunately the walk-in clinic near my office was not busy, the doctor on duty said, "Yes - sinus infection" and prescribed antibiotics and a nasal spray, and now here I sit without my beer.

However, I did run Wednesday and today, as planned, and cross-trained on Thursday, all according to the schedule. Wednesday was hill-training on the treadmill, which was a pretty good workout but not as tough as it should have been. Not being familiar with the programs, I guessed at the level and although it did work up a sweat and the last hill was pretty tough, I probably should have worked harder.

Today I was pretty much set to go outside, had my clothes picked out, etc. Then when I woke up, what I heard on the radio forecast was "-5, some wind, with gusts of 70 km/hour". At which point my brain said, "70 km/hour? And I own nothing to keep my face warm? And my nose is pretty raw already from this stupid cold? No way I can face that this morning". It turned out that although it was a little windy, the 70 km stuff wasn't due to happen until the afternoon. Funny what a little sleep deprivation can do to your listening skills...

In any event, I did feel a bit guilty (although that's silly) for not being outside and so made an effort to run a little faster than I would otherwise. No real hills, just a gentle grade. Towards the end I had a surprising amount of energy left, and did the last mile in 7 minutes. It wasn't impossible but it was work. In total, it was 13 km in 63 minutes, with a slow-ish start, so the bulk was at about the 7:47 minute/mile pace. Not blindingly fast, but faster than I would have been going outside.

So I'm not sure what's going to happen with running this weekend. Of course my long run is scheduled for Sunday, and since I've now purchased a balaclava for my face, and have enough layers for the rest of me, the plan was to run outside. But at this moment I am absolutely beat and visions of taking it very easy this weekend and fully recovering are dancing in my head. There's also suppposed to be some bad weather, as in mixed snow and ice pellets, and while I can actually appreciate why people like to run in powdery snow as it's falling, I'm not at all sure about having ice pellets underfoot.

Stay tuned for further reports ;)

I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: ART has changed my life!

After tonight's session my right hip feels SO much better. Similar things have happened before but I am still always surprised by the instant relief. I should never have left it so long, but it was just a little stiff, work was so busy, kept forgetting to make the appointment, excuses, excuses, excuses... As a result, by the time I was in enough discomfort to make the appointment, my hip really, really needed the work.

Painful work. Normally ART is not that painful for me, but I guess everything was extra tight/bound up. At the same time, it's hard to describe, but it's a "good" hurt. You can feel things improving even while thinking "Ouch. And ouch. And ouch again." When my practicioner said, "Okay, stand up and see how that feels", and I looked for the pain/stiffness trigger point, it was GONE. He did a little work on my left hip as well. I didn't realise it was getting tight until it was all loosened up.

Several hours later, the surrounding muscles on my right are a little sore, but that's pretty normal, and it doesn't last long.

Today's run got swapped for the elliptical. It was hard to get up this morning, my cold was still raging, and it was tempting to just take an unplanned rest day, but at the same time I knew the day would go better if it started with some exercise. Tomorrow is supposed to be hills and I will probably do them on the treadmill instead of going outside. Yes, I know this is the winter of toughening up. But not with this cold. I'm not sick enough to stay home but I'm just "off" enough to be on the "minimize stress" work out plan. It's supposed to go down to -8 C tonight, so it will probably be well below freezing tomorrow morning. Having never run in those temperatures, I'd prefer to be feeling better in general before trying it out.

With any luck, this cold will be it for the season. Lot of people at work have been much sicker in the last week or two so I'm getting off easy so far. Counting my blessings, and all that stuff...

Pretty nice run today - 19 km in the 4 C sunshine. As recently as yesterday the forecast was for winds of 30 km/hour, gusting to 50 km/hour, but for the most part the air was quite calm and that was a very pleasant surprise.

I actually wasn't sure whether I'd get out at all, given that I woke up feeling pretty crummy. Friday and yesterday my throat was sore, then this morning I was majorly congested and my sinuses had that awful "full" feeling, and until almost noon I really had no energy. I hated the thought of doing nothing, and was considering the gym, but once I started to feel better the pull of the outdoors was just too strong. We may not get another day this nice until March, or even later, and it just seemed "wrong" to miss it. Not to mention that after two days of the treadmill I was craving a "normal" run.

The actual running conditions were a little dicey at times. After the freezing rain on Wednesday night had me on the treadmill both Thursday and Friday, I was still a little leery about the sidewalks and the bike paths. DH and I had tried to clear the sidewalk in front of our house yesterday, but it was still frozen solid, and I knew that likely other people had the same issue. There are parts of the bicycle paths that get almost no shade (as I learned, over and over, this summer) so I figured they'd be good, but wasn't sure about other sections.

So I was right about the sidewalks. On less travelled and less sunny streets I moved to the road to avoid the worst of it. The bicycle paths were a real mish mash. Long stretches were bare and dry, or bare and wet, and that was great. Some stretches had just a trace of melting snow/slush, so they were a little mucky but okay. Some stretches had packed snow, which made my legs work harder, but that was fine. Unfortunately, there were a few patches that were pretty bad, with ice under thin snow, or just ice. That was where I either slowed down or ran in the snowy grass alongside. But overall there was more good than bad. And even when my feet got wet in the mucky spots, my lovely Transpor socks kept them from getting that cold, soaked feeling.

The worst part of all was a wooden bridge/walkway, which looked fine as I approached it - partly bare and partly covered with packed snow. Wrong! That snow was more slush than packed, and I slipped and almost fell. Fortunately I grabbed the wooden railing in time. Then had the joy of an unplanned rest break picking slivers out of my hand - they went in right through my gloves! Yuck!

The temperatures are supposed to be above freezing at least until Wednesday night, with only minor amounts of precipitation predicted for Tuesday and Wednesday, so it looks like the treadmill won't be required again right away. And freezing rain isn't super common here in the winter, so with luck our next blast of winter will leave a lot less ice behind.

Still feeling a little under the weather - not sick enough to be "sick", but not 100% - so no further words of wisdom from me tonight ;)

First week of training for ATB and Boston is done, and it went well. I miss the flexibility of "just running", of not worrying about how long a run was or whether I ran slow when it was supposed to be race pace, or fast when it was supposed to be an LSD, or whatever. Technically, I could probably "just run" for a while longer. However, DH and I are going to lose running/training time over Christmas - no matter our intentions, it's going to happen - so it makes sense to start building the base back up now.

Quite a difference from last year, though, in term of where I'm starting. The first few months of 2006 were spent coming back from whatever that hip injury was, running the Kingston Half quite conservatively, then taking some comfort from that to run a pretty good 1:43 half at Scotiabank. At which point F1 said we should train for a marathon, and I agreed, with a possible stop along the way at ATB 2007. So a year ago I had taken a break after Scotiabank and wanted to build back up to half marathon distance training runs by the end of 2006. Didn't quite make it - on New Years Eve day I ran 17 km or something - but it turned out okay in the end.

This year, I ran the half marathon distance yesterday and it was no big deal. My run was supposed to be 20 km, and DH was using the Garmin, so I did what I remembered as about 20 km with a little extra thrown in to be sure. Then measured it on mapmyrun.com that evening and it was 21.5 km or something similar. So not surprisingly, after two marathons this year and (so far, knock wood) no serious injuries, the base is deeper.

Before talking more about training I have to talk about yesterday's run, because although it wasn't one of those effortless-gift-from-the-gods runs, it was darn good and it was one of those runs that really had me in awe of what my body can willingly do. As usual, the day before I was careful not to eat too much, not to eat too late, not to overhydrate, etc. And I got up early enough to eat just a bit and let it digest before heading out. But in terms of special preparation, that was it. Once DH and I got our acts together and said, "No more lazing around; let's go and run now", it was just a matter of getting dressed, grabbing some water and some just-in-case sport beans, and heading out. No anxieties about the distance, not being ready, whatever. It had been a couple of weeks since my last long run but it didn't even occur to me that I couldn't do 20 km. Granted, it was supposed to be an LSD (although it was too fast) and I wasn't worried about time, but even so.

I wish I could describe the way I was feeling more accurately. It wasn't effortless, and sometimes the wind was a little cold, and my right hip was intermittently a bit stiff (time for some ART), but at the same time there was just something so - solid? normal? - about the way it felt, and at the realisation that I almost take this for granted. Which I wouldn't have believed possible, lo those many years ago when I was just getting into this...

"Awe" might sound like an overstatement but probably comes the closest. I vividly remember what it was like 13 or 14 years ago when I was just starting to make running part of my life, and how much work it was. Just learning how to breathe properly was work. Then there came the day when I was able to run to Royal Oak Station and back without a walk break. And the first time I ran 45 minutes without a walk break, I was so elated - had done some very, very slow running instead of walking, but hadn't walked, and that was an achievement. Training for the Sun Run in 1997, my "go forever" pace was a ten minute mile, and 10 km was a long distance. So I am awed when I think about the distances that I can run now. And grateful to whatever powers that be that I can run them. If something happened, like another injury, and I couldn't run, no doubt over time I'd adjust. But it's such a huge part of my life and my identity that I don't even want to consider that.

Back to training. Given the hills in both ATB and Boston, this time around both hill repeats and speedwork are a must. Not my usual ad hoc "guess I should do some hills because the run is pretty soon" approach. But scheduled workouts. I don't like the discipline, I don't like taking the fun out of running. But if there was ever a time to do the work, this is it.

No, I'm not looking for a PB in either event - and in any case I don't think Boston is a reasonable course to get a PB - but I do want to enjoy the distance. And part of that means not being as afraid of the hills. It's not like I'm trying to train to the point where they're easy (and is it even possible to do that?). More that I want my legs to be a lot more accustomed to doing that work.

As for speedwork - yuck. Just yuck. But it's good for building endurance and all that stuff. And I'll start it fairly easy, build up from there. Frankly, I don't even know what my real goal is in doing speedwork, just know that it's part of a well-rounded training program.

But the best training days are still the "just running" days :)

It's going to be interesting trying to run through the winter. Trying to run outside through the winter, that is. It's not impossible, and according to people who do it, it's not even that difficult. They even call it fun. And so I've decided that this is the year for me to toughen up. How far that will go and how long it will last? We'll see. I am such a weather weenie. Primarily when it comes to wind, of which there is much in Toronto, in the winter. Absolutely I need to find some kind of face protection. So far it hasn't been too bad, but it's the time of year when Mother Nature can just flip a switch and suddenly it's winter.

"Toughening up" means running outside when it's cold. It doesn't mean running on ice. Possibly it means running in light snow. It doesn't mean running when it's coming down hard, sideways. As for how cold is "cold"? Don't know yet. Almost certainly I'll have to get some warmer gear, but right now I don't know what that is.

The motivation? Mostly ATB, some Boston. For 2007 we lucked out and the ATB weather was practically perfect. No way to know what it will be like for 2008. And if it's crummy, well, I don't want that to be my introduction to running in crummy weather. Boston's weather is uncertain too. A few years ago it was horribly hot and humid, this year it was rainy and cold. Could I possibly have the luck with my first Boston that I had with my first ATB? Well, one can always hope. And then one can train for "whatever".

But it's funny how few clothes you actually need to wear in order to run comfortably outside when the temperature cools off. At 2 C, I am fine in a long-sleeved shirt and my thin jacket. Adding an extra short-sleeved shirt is almost too warm, although bearable. I'd freeze trying to walk around dressed like that, but up the pace and suddenly the body is shedding heat. The hardest thing is the effort of will that it takes to step outside in just those thin layers, in the dark, when there is a wind, and just start moving. That's when it would really help to have a running partner. No such luck at the moment but there is always the hope of meeting someone at the Y who runs the same pace and also wants company. Ultimately, you run alone, but I am a social runner and often do much better when I'm out with somebody and the kilometres are just piling up behind us. I miss running with my Running Buddy. Too many injuries for him and even when not injured he's not doing the same distance as a couple of years ago.

With all the references to ATB, I should note that DH is doing the race again. At this point he hasn't formally started training, but his post-Scotiabank Half base is still quite good. I had to laugh last night at the contrast between us. Having just realised that you could use satellite data in mapmyrun.com to plot trail runs, and shortcuts on paths through U of T, and stuff like that, I was busy figuring out the distance for several of my standard runs that I had previously sort of guessed at. DH? He was surfing through London, and Greenland, and Iceland. Nice to have him around to keep me from over-focussing :)

In a post a while back, I think I mentioned that we went to four weddings this summer. Three of them involved dancing, and I remember talking to DH about how a side benefit of running was being able to dance all night and not be exhausted afterwards. Well, tonight we identified another benefit that had never crossed my mind - pumping up an air mattress. We are in the middle of kitchen renovations and for various reasons it would be easier to sleep in the basement for at least a couple of nights, so DH went out and got an air mattress that has a foot pump. Pumping it up was tedious but really not tiring - my legs work a lot harder than that during a long run!

We have never slept in the basement before so it will be interesting. Just us and the cats, camping out in our own house. They're a little miffed at not being allowed upstairs tonight but since we're here with them they should be okay.