Interval Running with Baci

I went for a 5 km run with Baci this morning.  Because it was a 'short' run I wanted to make it count so I decided to use it as a speed/ interval run.  Fartleks (tee hee hee) are used to help increase your overall speed so that your sense of normal gets challenged and thus you start to increase your sense of 'normal'.
Every training chart will have you do a few fartleks (smile) mixed in with your regular runs.

Running with a dog is perfect for this exercise.  Baci tends to want to sprint right out the door and I need a few minutes to work out all aches and pains and get into pace.  We must have looked a bit out of sorts for that first block or so.  We take a few blocks to settle into a pace that we both are ok with.  If we start out too fast, I am dragging him behind me by the end and I end up wanting to sleep for the rest of the afternoon (which is fine for him -- but not for me!).

We got into a good pace and we both felt strong and happy.  He showed it by wagging his tail and doing a dog smile (aka drooling).  I showed it by singing along to P!nk, Bon Jovi, and Florence & The Machine.  As soon as he saw another dog-- woosh-- he was off to say hello, with me SPRINTing to keep up.  The interval training had begun!  He took 20 seconds to sniff and get tangled in the other dog's leash then we were off again at our regular pace when he saw another dog-- woosh-- we were off again!  After another little break, I decided to keep up this new found pace and make it our 'normal'.  Now instead of Baci leading me to my faster pace, he kept me in check by stopping at every large tree to pee. Really, do you need to pee at EVERY large on EVERY block????

Baci's pee breaks are a welcome slow down for me though.  I would never consider taking a moment to catch my breath so he is the perfect excuse!  Afterall, a dog has to pee right?

So, today's 5 km was a success.  We didn't over do it.  I feel good this afternoon and am looking forward to my next run and Baci, well, he is his regular goofy, drooly sense of dog.

Here we go again

Since I was little, I have loved the idea of having a diary.  When I was young I would start one with the idea that my diary would be my new best friend, my new pen pal.  I called her D.  I would start each entry 'Dear D'.  It was a wonderful, warm feeling for about two weeks but afterwards I would get lazy and my pen pal letters to Dear D would just quietly peter out (Sorry, anyone named Peter).

This time is DIFFERENT!  True, I started a blog as a diary about two years ago (http://mytime-running.blogspot.ca/) but the only reason I did not continue was a) it felt strange putting my thoughts down in cyber space b) no one cared except me (no really, it's true), and c) I forgot my Google password and could not re-activate it.  This time will be DIFFERENT!  OK, who knows, but here we go again, anyways...

Dear B,
First a bit about who I am today.  I am 44, happily married Mom who is educated as a social worker and loves to run.  That is me in a sentence.  I have been running for 14+ years but more seriously in the past 6.  I have an amazing husband whom I've been married to for 15 years, 3 kids (14, 12, 8 yrs), and a large drooly dog who is my running partner on the shorter runs.

How I got into this hobby:
I was exercising in various classes (Ball, Flow, Boxercise...) and started to have some pain in my wrist.  I was also nursing and carrying around a young one at the same time.  The physiotherapist suggested I stop lifting free weights (after all, wasn't I already lifting Sam?) and doing plank-like exercises and run on the treadmill for a while so that I would give my wrist a break (I mean a rest).  I found running on the treadmill easy and wanted a goal to work towards.  Even though I had only run at maximum 10 km at one time  (Terry Fox run, Compugen 10 km), I decided I would run a marathon!  I wanted a goal that I could not even envision. After all, starting with a Half seemed too easy because really, it was only 2x 10km (ha, ha, too easy...ha ha).

When I started the journey of training, I was not even able to start on the How To Run A Marathon training chart.  I had to create my own training chart to get on the training chart!  Long story short, I accomplished my goal on Oct 14, 2007 in 4 hours 19 min.



I wrote about the experience of training and how it is similar to begin pregnant and having your first child. It was published in Today's Parent Magazine March 2008.  I broke it up into the 3 trimesters 1) not telling anyone until it was for sure, 2) how your body changes and your eating habits change, wanting to learn all you can and signing up for weekly emails and 3) wanting the waiting to just be over and being tired of hearing of everyone's experienced tales!  The funny thing is that you truly forget the pain and just remember the accomplishment as time goes on.

The experience of setting one's mind to do something outrageous and accomplishing it, has stayed with me in all aspects that I do.  And yes, I would love to run another full marathon.  I have run 6 half marathons since.

Why I call this blog My Time (and my twitter name mytime0101):
As mentioned before, I am a wife, a mom to 3 kids and a dog, educated as a social worker (not currently employed as one), and a homemaker.  Running is my thing.  It is my time that I use for me.  I listen to my music, think my thoughts, and exercise to improve my body and my mood.

I find I get rather slap happy when I run and I see this as a fun forum to document some of those silly thoughts, experiences and photos.

Hopefully, this time, I will keep this going.

Until next time,
Jenn