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BIG NEWS THIS WEEK

SOOO super excited about last week because I got some good workouts in and also found some new routes around my area. This week I tried to include a bit more incline because I realized my runs did not have much elevation gain. Although it was not a ton of incline it was still a decent increase from my usual runs. Also have some big news that I will talk about at the end. For this weeks runs we hit a solid 30.33km.

  • Tue – 5.47km at a 5.12min/km
  • Thur – 8.67km at a 5.14min/km
  • fri – 4.69km at a 5.08min/km
  • Sat – interval
    • 1.02km – 4.38min/km
    • 1.01km – 4.46min/km
    • 1.02km – 4.37min/km
    • 1.01km – 4.27min/km
    • 1.02km – 4.43min/km
    • 1.02km – 4.27min.km
  • Sun – 5.22km at a 5.50min/km

The runs were solid and the hip is feeling much stronger and less painful than it was about 3 months ago. Very happy with the progress I have made and I am just learning to trust the process. The ice baths and the exercises have been extremely helpful. One thing that I did this week that was quite interesting was scraping with the backend of a butter knife. I grab some moisturizer and just went to town on my legs. The area that bruised up the most and the easiest with minimum pressure was my right hip. It blew up like a blueberry and just got a ton of bruises and red spots. It was quite satisfying to see kind of like popping a blackhead I guess. To anyone that does not want to buy specific tools for scraping try out the backend of a butter knife. It was actually recommended by a physiotherapist I knew who I talked to and mention how sidekick has scraping tools. Her exact words were “why waste your money on that just use a butter knife and some lube”. That is my little piece of advice.

Also super stocked to let you guys know that I am changing my rotation of shoes. I got the Forever Floatride Energy 2.0 and the saucony guide 13. I will be using the floatride for my interval runs and maybe some tempo work. Then the saucony will be for my easy and long runs because of the extra support in them. I will give you guys my thoughts on them once I get a few more miles in but so far they feel pretty smooth both feel very different that is for sure.

Thank you for reading I hope everyone is enjoying their runs.

Stay happy, Stay healthy, Keep breathing

What to do now?

So I got the results from the doctor and it is not looking to good. Was told I should not be running anymore and will need to do rehab. In case you were curios I have a unbalanced pelvic which has caused a strain in my patellar tendon on my left knee. Luckily it is not tendonitis but I have been advised if I keep running without treating this it could lead to that. So the doctor has told me that I will need to take at least 6 weeks off while doing rehab to fix my pelvic area. They advised met that I need to start being more symmetrical in my daily activities. So that means no leaning on one side while standing, no crossing legs while sitting sleeping in certain positions that keep my hip from shifting.

NOW the question is what will I be doing to pass the time or somewhat keep my fitness. I will pretty much be out for 2 months which was devastating to hear especially since it feels like I just finished getting rid of a hip strain on my right side. However looking back this year has beared me some fruits of my hardwork. I got some PBs for my 5k and half marathon time. So luckily I was at least able to get those before I had to stop.

In the meantime, I will be biking and going back to light weights or body exercises that will not strain the knee as much. This will be a great time to strengthen the legs which will hopefully help my rehab and help me to maintain some form of fitness in my life while I wait patiently. Not going to lie, I was a bit frustrated to hear I cannot run but not much I can do about it now. Once I am better, I will be stronger and faster that is for sure. Hopefully, once I am healed I will have enough time to prep for my marathon coming up in May.

I just wanted to update you guys. Thank you for listening I hope that you all are staying healthy and continue training and being safe at the same time.

Stay happy, Stay healthy, Keep breathing

running has been put on pause

Hello everybody,

I had my checkup with a sports doctor and the news was kind of good. So he did let me know that I do not have tendinitis in my knee but it could develop if I continue running excessively without treating the problem. He believes that my knee pain is because of an imbalance in my hip and has advised me to be as symmetrical as possible when i am sitting, standing walking to fix my posture in my hip has been effected. He did ask me to get a ultrasound down so I am waiting to hear back for my appointment. But that was the doctors diagnosis after hearing and putting me through tests. never stops to surprise me how connected our bodies are.

SOOO, after hearing that I decided it may be a good idea to take a break especially since winter is coming and the running season is going to slow down just a bit. Or well it would if the world was running as it use to. I have not been running this week. However, last week I did run a half marathon and hit a PB of 1hour and 43 min compared to my last half a year ago which was 1hour and 52min. I was pretty happy because compared to last year I did not run nearly as many miles but I did train smarter. Although I did end up with some pain in my knee I did not have to murder my body running 70+ km a week to get there.

I suspect the knee pain is associated to how I have been working from home as I do sit with my legs up and cross them rather than flat on the ground. So that is something I need to fix. So for the next couple of days I am going to try and take it easy although I did crack yesterday and went on an easy 7km around 5.30 pace. It felt good but I did have some pain in the knee afterwards.

As always thank you for listening and I hope you are all crushing your goals and runs. Also, happy belated halloween to everybody! Hope it was nice and spooky and full of sweets.

Stay happy, Stay healthy, Keep breathing

Feeling down

Hey everyone!

I hope everyone is crushing their goals. I know based on the title you are probably wondering what exactly happened? To start, I did complete some runs this week. The total mileage was about 42km. I also have an appointment set with a sports specialist who is going to help me out with the knee pain I have been experiencing next week. This was recommended by my family doctor who did some blood tests on me. Good news is all my levels are spot on according to her so that is great news.

Moving towards the actual topic for this week. I have been feeling a bit down this week and personally, I think its because of being in lockdown again. Not being able to go out freely or see others as often has been tougher mentally because it does start to get lonely. Sometimes I even question the friendships I have with people as I do not get to see them in person anymore so contact does get lost. I do understand that we cannot always be in contact with everyone because we all have our own lives to live but the mind can be forgetful of that. Once you get into those negative spirals it just keeps going until you snap out of it and realize its wrong.

Certain things that I have had to be more mindful of this week is my patience and motivation to work/run. When I am feeling down it can be hard to get work down as my head is always bringing on so much negativity. So being mindful and trying to bring out more positive self talk has been helpful. With being more negative I did find myself being more impatient and again I would have to remind myself to calm down and breathe. I was thinking of skipping today’s post but I am glad that I did it because I want to be transparent about my journey as well as maybe help someone that may also be experiencing the same things. I also found writing about this very therapeutic. So thank you for allowing this happen.

During this time, I am sure that we are all facing problems but WE will get through it. Lets all continue to push forward because the more time spent dwelling means less time spent on bettering ourselves. If anyone else is have problems and would like to rant about how they may be feeling I am all ears.

As always thank you for listening to todays rant. I hope everyone keeps crushing their goals for the coming week.

Stay happy, Stay healthy, Keep breathing

Had to call it quits on Physio

Hello Everyone!

Hope everyone was killing it on their runs this week! I had a pretty easy week of running only clocked in 32km. It was raining quite a bit this week so I did not end up running on some of the days when I finished work. Although I know for some rain does not bother people but I would just rather not have wet socks.

Anyways, based on the title I am sure you all know that I had to decide on ending it with my physiotherapist this week after seeing her for about a month, because it was not cutting it for me. I have a little pain in my knee. I did tell my family doctor who is going to schedule a sports physician to take a look. In the meantime, I wanted to try and get some work done because it was going to take a bit before I’d get to visit the doctor. Something that I realized is if you are a bit more on the athletic side you should see actual physio clinics that are more specialized with those types of customers. The current place that I went to was referred to by a friend but as they told me themselves they work on people that are more so office workers and it did show as I noticed based on other clinics I visited their approach is very different. While I do understand that every clinic is different its something that I just wanted to share with you guys because I felt it was important.

I will not get into the details of why I felt it was not working out because that is not what this blog is about. So in the future if any of you guys are looking to get treated its something to ask before you visit whichever clinic you are going to. Based on my family doctor and the physiotherapist I am ok to continue running however, I will probably slow the pace down just in case so I do not overload my knee to much.

Something else that I wanted to mention is that fall time is such a nice season to go trail running its a beautiful view because you have the trees changing colours and its covered with a nice set leaves. It can get a little dangerous because you cannot see the ground as well, but you can just go slower and enjoy the view longer.

Thank you for listening and I hope you are all enjoying your runs.

Stay happy, Stay healthy, Keep breathing

Highest Mileage in a Long Time

Hello everyone!

I realized I missed my post last week so I decided instead of waiting for Sunday to come around. I thought I would share my experience last week.

I have been running with a new run group recently and they have been an amazing group of people to run with as I see what very strong runners look like and how they have built their foundation. It is definitely humbling to be apart of such an amazing group. In case you would like to follow them on instagram their handle is “werunnorthyork”.

Running with these guys really made me want to push myself. So I tried to bump up the weekly mileage and finished it off with 57.4km. I clocked in 2 longer runs back to back completing a 17km run at a 5.35min/km on Saturday and a 15km at a 6.13min/km pace on Sunday. Something that I also became reminded of on Sunday was although running is a solo sport, we do not need to treat it like one. Especially because most runners I know run solo but also in groups. During the group sessions we are making sure we are aware of how our fellow runners are feeling. On Sunday a friend I was running with was not feeling great so I decided I would drop my pace and help pace/draft my friend during the second half while trying to make sure he stayed hydrated.

Its good to have these moments because we all have those days where we are not feeling it but we push through and get the work done but it makes it better if we have someone there to help us out during it. Even during my workout with the new run group I tend to be trailing behind and they did the exact same thing for me so its always good to feel supported even if it is considered to be a solo sport.

Anyways that is my bit for this week. I really hope everyone is killing their runs and I definitely recommend joining a run group for some additional inspiration and support.

Stay happy, Stay healthy, Keep breathing

HUGE time trial

Hello everybody!

As mentioned in my last post we were gonna go for a 5k time trial. It was a huge success. We went to a track just so I could optimize the time I was pretty nervous while doing the warmup. Luckily we had highschool track teams training at the same time. So I may have used them as my pacers which helped alot. I was able to hit a time that I was not expecting. We finished the 5k at 20mins and 20 seconds!!! THAT WAS HUGE for me because last year I was running 5km in the 23min mark. So very happy with this because it just shows the work I put in the summer has been working. Completed the run in my nike zoom fly 3.

After the run my legs pretty much felt like jello so I did do a shakeout run which was about 5k at a 6min pace. It was crazy to think that I ran a 4:04 when all my other runs have been around 4:50-5 min paces. It just reinforces that idea that you do not need to run fast to get faster. Basically you don’t need to be pumping 100% all the time to get better.

The day after the shakeout we actually completed the most elevation we have ever done in a 12km run with 260m of elevation. Definitely felt it in the legs during those hills even if I was going slow. My quads got absolutely obliterated during this run. Today (Sunday) I decided to do another run that ended up being a little faster than I wanted it to be. Ended up doing about 7km at a 5min pace, but thats ok because I plan to take it easy now on the runs as winter is rolling in. So I will not be doing fast runs as much and just more so attempting to get the miles in. If anyone wants to share how they feel about running in the winter that would be amazing. (tips/advise would be very welcomed)

As always thank you for reading and I hope you are all killing those runs.

Stay happy, Stay healthy, Keep breathing

Creeping up on my first TT

Hey everyone hope you are all killing it on your runs. I have been tapering for a 5K time trial just so I can gauge my fitness level and see if I can beat my last years 5k time which was 23.43. This year I am going to do my time trial on a track while last year was a semi flat trail. Since I did not get to do to many races this year I’ll be trying out some short virtual runs to see my progress.

Overall the training has been going well. I did just finish up on my long run yesterday in 15km with 5.09 pace. Felt pretty relaxed I did end up going alittle hard in the beginning and then easing off at the end as I wanted to run on tired legs for the second half of the run. Felt good though, One thing that I did not mention to you guys was I have joined a run club! They are called the North York run club they host runs on Wednesday and Saturday. We actually had a really good hill session on Wednesday where some of the members really pushed me. It is a very humbling experience to be out there with such strong and experienced runners.

I have definitely have a new found love for doing group runs. Doing solo runs has become a bit harder now as I fine them a little lonely. Even if the person I am running with is not talking to me it is still nice to have their presence because I know they are going through the pain with me. Have you guys experienced this feeling? If so any tips for me?

Also, this has never happened to me before so I am very excited to announce that I have won a FREE FITBIT!! after joining a running contest. I did not run the fastest time but it was a random draw if you submitted a run of 5k or more. The group on IG that is hosting this is torontopcoswalk. This has never happened to me so I was extremely excited and I just wanted to share that with you guys.

That is all from me. I hope you are all killing it on the runs and as always, thank you for reading.

Stay happy, Stay healthy, Keep breathing

Feels like a Rollercoaster

This week I am back after alittle break due to some ankle issues. I had to take a step back from running because about 2 weeks ago I completed a trail run and the next day my ankle was swollen. Not being able to put pressure on it I thought it may be a good idea to take some time off to let it recover. I spent the first week not running at all. The week after that I ran about 15km just to see how my ankle felt. There was still pain but no where near as bad. the next week I went back into it and finished the week off with 44km.

I have been trying to go to a few more trails now because I would like to get through as many as I can before we get hit by the good old Canadian winter. This summer has definitely been a roller coaster in terms of me running. Going from having issues with my hip/IT band to have ankle issues on my left foot. It never ends but that is the fun in all of what we do. I definitely do not want to say I am getting a better understanding of my body but I will say I am more aware of when I can push myself and when I need to pull back. The past 2 days I completed 2 longer runs. Both about 14km each. The first one was more flat with not much elevation then the next day we did a trail with a bit of elevation about 161m. After the first 14km this much elevation felt like alot. I struggled alot and the pace was pulled back because I could feel some pain in the knees and I was just going off on tired legs.

That is what I think alot of people need to remember is that during this time when we are not racing there is no need to push yourself to the point of breaking if you are only running for the enjoyment of it. For me I wont be racing until May 2021 (maybe) so pushing yourself to your threshold may not be the best idea. Its all about the effort levels and getting the mileage in. Personally I just wanted to put in about 40km this week because I knew I could get through it. Even though it was tough I knew I could hold an easy pace during this long run. But now I know I do need to let the legs rest so I will be taking it easy for a day or two because I know running tomorrow will be to much for me. That is about it for me, I hope that everyone is enjoying their summer running and getting in those good quality runs.

Stay happy, Stay healthy, Keep breathing

recovery/recharge gone wrong

To start I had a very low mileage week. I finished off the week at 28km it was not much and that is exactly what I was aiming for. I did 3 short 5ks and then 13k at a reasonable pace of 5:47min per km. I was feeling good, legs were feeling refreshed. I focused a lot of my time on stretching, strengthening work and rolling.

The day after my easy long run, I started to feel some pain on the bottom of my foot that carried up towards my Achilles. NOWWWWW it hurts to walk, so a little worried but I am hoping it is just a strain that will get better with time off. Going to take it easy again this week and probably not run for now. Just going to leave it to feeling for now. If things do not improve I will have to head over to the doctor to get it checked out.

Sometime it can definitely feel as if I am prone to injuries no matter what I do. Not sure anymore because I definitely do not feel like I am over working myself for the most part. I am alittle frustrated but I just have to go with the flow and keep looking forward to what is next. Definitely anxious to see how things go after this week but I will keep you guys updated.

For now I will leave you guys with that. As always, thank you for reading and I hope that everyone is getting their mileage in.

Stay happy, Stay healthy, Keep breathing

Tougher Week than Expected

This week unfortunately I was not able to hit the average distance I was hoping for. At the same time I am happy that I was listening to my body and giving it the rest it needs. Luckily this coming week is a down week for me so I will hopefully let the legs rest up and recover up from the last 3 weeks.

So here is the break down for this week. I hit a total mileage of 38.3km with 264m of elevation. I did need to take some days off because my legs were feeling quite tired. So i took 3 days off throughout the week. One was Monday, Thursday and Sunday. I took Sunday off mainly because it was raining all day so seemed like a sign for me to just relax the legs.

Most of the runs this week were averaging around low 5min paces but on Friday I did run a trail in Niagara called Bruce trail with some elevation that took me on a ride. I am not use to doing much elevation on my runs now a days so I have been trying to add that in a bit more. On that day, it was quite hilly with 191 meters of elevation. For that run, I actually averaged a 6 min pace. I definitely struggled but also I am not as use to hiking up rocky and uneven trails. I felt like I was nervous on the uphill as I was worried about slipping or rolling my ankle (which almost happened a few times).

Another thing I started looking into anaerobic and aerobic workouts to understand it more during my runs. I learned that anaerobic workouts are when their is a lack of oxygen in the body that leads to more lactic acid build up and for long distance runners the main focus should be aerobic workouts where the body is comfortable and able to get the right amount of oxygen while working out. I have started to turn my focus to more aerobic work and expanding that area looking to be more comfortable at faster paces with proper breathes. So I am not going to be doing sprint intervals anymore and the for thresholds I will not be looking to go all out where I am basically gasping for air.

Anyways, thank you for reading guys if you have any tips about anaerobic and aerobic workouts for long distance runners I would love to hear about it. Thanks for reading and I hope you all are doing amazing.

Stay happy, Stay healthy, Keep breathing