Post-Holidays Wrap-Up and Weigh-In

The holidays are over. December is crazy, with my birthday, millions of Christmas parties and family dinners. 3 family birthdays, new years. It feels like a month long celebration of food and drink. Last year I way over did it and finished the holidays at 143lbs. Its difficult for me to walk the line between enjoying the occasions, celebrating and way overdoing it. With all the craziness going on it is also tricky getting my runs in. 

I had to laugh when I filled out my running spreadsheet. When I'm training I usually run around 50miles a week. I was running more than that but got injured and now I'm trying to stay around 45-50. My miles dropped steadily from November to the week of Christmas. But, this is the "off-season" for me and I think your body needs a break before ramping up again. I have 2 off-seasons where there is no races and I relax a little on the running. The Nov-Dec one and June-July. 

I weighed in on December 15th at 134.8 which is up a little for me but not too bad. Then I just did a final post-holiday weigh-in on Dec. 27th...

I can handle that...up 3.2 isnt too crazy (for me) and it puts me in a much better position for the Vancouver Island Race Series. The first race is Jan 22nd so I have about 3 weeks to bust my butt and get back to racing weight. I'm excited. I love those races and the competition and am ready for off-season to be over and to get back at it. I registered already for the 4 races I will be running. 

Race Re-Cap - Westwood Winter Solstice Half Marathon

I decided to run a half-marathon about an hour before it started :) A friend at work had told me about it the day before. It was a mid-week Winter Solstice Marathon, half-marathon and 10k being held at Westwood Lake. It seemed like the perfect opportunity since I had missed my long run on the weekend from being sick and the run was being held on the first day of my Christmas holidays. It was also a fundraising event for LGBTQ youth in Nanaimo which is a cause I feel very strongly about. I was told it was a small, casual event and was given the Facebook link. I looked up the race and saw there could be two problems. One of them was that due to the amount of snow and ice they were considering cancelling the run or holding it and recommending everyone have Yak Trax (metal cleats) that strap on your runners. The other problem was that I had been up most of the night before with a puking child. So I wanted to see how the night went and only go if I got some sleep. But the FB page said they didnt want anyone to do morning of registration. So I resigned myself that it just wasnt going to work out. 

The next morning I woke up and saw a note from the event organizer that the run was on and they were going to allow same day registration. She posted that the trail was full of ice though and still recommended Yak Trax. I dropped my kids off at daycare at 8am and the race started at 9. I decided to go and check it out and if it was too slippery I could always just go for a run somewhere else. I whipped home, got bundled up since it was -2C, stole the $20 race fee from daughters allowance jar :) 

The sun was just coming up when I got there and it was cold but beautiful!

I saw only about half the folks there had metal cleats and the other half was just in runners so I decided to go for it. I paid my entry and warmed up a little bit and chatted with the rest of the folks. I put my predicted time at about 2hrs, giving myself an extra 30mins due to the conditions. Lots of folks had signed up for the half and were down-grading to the 10k. There was actually 2 or 3 people who had started early with the intention of doing the full. 

We got to the start-line and I think there was probably about 30 of us racing. My racing bib was a 1/4 piece of ripped up paper with my name written on it in pen lol. Timing was approximate, as were the distances. But I didnt care, I was just running for fun and to get out of the house. 

We started out and turns out they were upgrading one of the boardwalks so we had to detour down this road to get around the area being repaired and back on the trail. That entire corner was black ice and we all had to stop and walk carefully over it so we didnt bail!

Most of the trail was compacted snow that had turned into ice. You had to watch every step so carefully and there were sections you had to just walk and/or slide down. But it was fun, we laughed at the craziness of the situation and then continued on.  

There were some bare patches but never enough that you could get any speed up. 

The lake was completely frozen over and it was so beautiful! I had to stop and take a few pictures. 

 I felt great! Half way through I seriously considered switching to the full...silly endorphins! This photo totally depicts a happy hopped up on running adrenaline Jess :) 

That lasted till about 18k and then my legs got sore. Running on so much ice was tough! The impact was hard on the knees and I felt like I was constantly bracing my core and quads with every step so that I didnt fall. You couldnt just zone out and run, it was mentally tiring! Watching every foot placement so you didnt hit a root or ice patch. 

I finished the race at just under 10 mins miles...about 35mins slower than my last road half. But I had a blast and ran for the joy of running and not caring about time. Everyone who had signed up for the full ended up bailing at shorter distances, it was just too rough out there. 

The race finished and I got to enjoy some baked goods and hot chocolate. I also got a very cool medal with a rainbow strap :) Fun day and awesome way to start my Christmas holidays!

Wacky Weigh-Ins

Monday morning I got up and hopped on the scale and almost fell off when I saw the number. 137.2. I was expecting to see around 134. Cue the confusion and melodramatic freaking out... :)  I re-jigged my meal plan a bit and planned to run hard this week.  I did 6 miles at lunch at a medium pace which felt good after the race. I also got my weights done. 

 Tuesday I woke up and was down 2lbs and realized that some of that extra weight must have been post-race water retention. I knew that was an issue with some of the longer races, but I didnt think a 10k would impact me like that! 

It was a field day which involved a lot of hiking and clambering over trees. I had hoped to get back in town in time to do a quick speed drill but I got home with 15 mins to spare. I did hop on the treadmill for 10 mins which is better than nothing I guess! 

(sometimes I love my job!)

Wednesday I weighed in at 134.0. Down another 1.2.  Lesson learned, do not weigh in the day after a race unless you want to unnecessarily freak yourself out! I took the day as a flex day. I was excited to get out for a longer run and had planned on doing 13 miles. I ended up leaving a little later than expected and it was really cold out. It took me a while to get warmed up and moving at a decent speed. I headed downtown and then turned around to come back and was hit with a really strong head wind. My stomach was growling at that point and even pushing hard I was barely managing 10 mins/miles. I decided to cut the run short and would have stopped to walk except home was where the food was and I was desperate to get back and eat! Not a fun run at all!

Thursday was speed drill day. The plan was to do a tempo run of 12 mins warm-up, 20 mins fast and 13 mins cool-down. I warmed up and felt pretty good. The 20 mins fast started and I gave it my all. I was with my running buddy and knew I was pulling ahead of him a bit. Sometimes I pull away at the end of longer speed drills but usually not too much. I finished the 20 mins and turned to look for him. I didnt see him and ran back over the hill. I still couldnt see him and started to panic. He struggles with breathing issues sometimes and I guess he ended up having to stop because he felt light-headed and then ran into a bear on the road. Best running buddy ever right here...head down trying to make my speed drill pace, while he almost died and/or got eaten!  

 But I killed the speed portion and did 20 mins at 6:54min/mile :)

Friday I woke up and weighed in officially:

So down almost 5lbs in 5 days...wtf?!  Oh well I'll take it...lol

Also I saw this mug at Chapters today...I think it was totally meant for me :) I've got such a weakness for hot chocolate...that and chips!