gwennefarrell

I came up from training the other day and my husband looked at me and says wow, you look like you worked hard (I had to remind him I always do). I said I had done a hard workout but sometimes it takes a lot to talk myself through it. Ok, it is pretty much every time. It seems that each time I get to the end of the first interval I start bargaining with myself that if I get to the 1/2 way point I can ease up. Then I get to the 1/2 way point and I don’t feel too bad. About interval number 8 it is tough but by then I am almost at the end so what the hell, I might as well keep going.

Today is orthotic day. That means that I was fitted for my brand new (very expensive) orthotics. I admit I really didn’t know what to expect not just about the process but how they would feel. It started out with me just standing on the orthotics to see how they felt and if there were any pressure points. When that went ok they were trimmed to fit my shoes. Next we took the insole linings out of the shoes and I had to do some walking so that the tech could check my gait. Again, I had to watch for any pressure points. She asked me how they felt and I admitted they feel a bit weird especially with the new arch supports. Apparently that is ok.

So now what? Well, it is time to slowly break them in. For the next 2 – 3 weeks I need to wear them in my shoes as much as possible which also means wearing my shoes as much as possible (note I tend to only wear shoes when I am working out or leaving the house). However, I am not to wear them when running or training, only when I am walking. Each day I am to try and wear them a little longer than the previous day and watch for any soreness or pressure points. If they don’t feel comfortable by the end of 3 weeks then they will need to be adjusted. I walked the 2 km’s home from the fitting and they didn’t feel too bad.

I am going to have to control myself and not try rushing into running with the orthotics though I know that will be hard for me. I am actually anxious to see how they improve my gait and in particular the joint pain I sometimes feel. Maybe, just maybe, they will even help me with my speed.

My apologies to those of you who have been checking my blog the last few days. Friday my husband and I went up to the trailer to spend a couple nights and get some work done. Unfortunately we did not really accomplish any of the items we had on our to-do list but at least we got to spend some time together. I had opted not to take my laptop and really did not feel like writing my blog on my iPad. I will say though, despite there being issue with the work we went there to do, we did have a nice couple nights together.

This time of year is probably the busiest for me when it comes to volunteering. Year round each week I phone isolated seniors and lead a seniors’ walking group (this has now really become a support group and it is awesome). Of course 5 days a week I also walk a dog for a senior who has mobility issues. Every other week I also facilitate a caregivers’ support group. In total I estimate I spend at least 8 hours every week (10.5 hours on caregiver week) and it has all just become part of my normal routine.

But that ramped up even more because it is tax time. While I do taxes for clients through my business, one afternoon a week for the months of March and April I do taxes for low income seniors through the Community Volunteer Income Tax Clinics. Some weeks especially, at the beginning and end of the program, can be quite busy with me putting in up to 4.5 hours while weeks such as this week are less onerous with this week only being 2 hours. To add to all of that this week I also completed a round of grant application reviews for one of my organizations which in total probably took me about 12 hours. Yes, it is definitely a busy time of year.

But why do I do this? I have often noted on this blog that when I started on this journey I realized it was not just about my physical fitness but also about my mental health. I find for me personally volunteering just makes me feel good. My walking group for example, we have been doing that for more than a year now and we have become good friends. A couple of the walkers have been having issues lately and so the rest of us stepped up to support them. Last week in the caregivers’ group one of the participants had me in tears (that may seem counterintuitive to feeling good but it is not). At the end of the session the participant had to come give me a hug and thank me for making her feel better. And as for the tax clinic, well at least one client each week has to profusely thank me and let me know how important getting this done for free was for them. Just those little acknowledgements make me feel good.

I realize that all this volunteering is as important to me as my training is. I plan to keep doing it for as long as I can find organizations that have something for me to do. Really, it keeps me mentally healthy.

Another day, another Zoom meeting. Here is how these meetings work for me. I close off the doors to the basement which lets everyone in the house know I am in a meeting (there is actually a sign on the family room door that says if this door is closed there is a meeting going on). Because the door is closed one of my cats will start screaming. If I let him in the room he climbs on my desk and blocks my monitor. After he has annoyed me to no end he then goes back to the door and screams to be let out. Now I have done dozens of virtual meetings and this happens every single time. However, he seems satisfied because he has me at his beck and call.

I know I have posted before about my speed or lack thereof. When I was working with my coach she had me doing intervals where I would run at normal speed then sprint for a bit and then repeat that sequence. The problem is I don’t feel I have ever really increased my speed. Since my endurance is definitely coming back I decided maybe it is time to put some serious focus on my speed so that I can get to where I don’t feel like anyone walking quickly can pass me.

Since I am still doing my early morning training in my garage I came up with a plan. Remember, I now have an excellent treadmill which I feel can really help my training. So, this week I have started doing interval training specifically to increase my speed. The concept is simple, I can easily run 5 minute intervals with a minute fast walk in between. Now, each week I am going to slightly increase the speed of the run intervals. By slightly, I really do mean slightly as I would rather take a few months to get to my goal if it means doing it safely.

I gave this theory a try this week and was pleasantly surprised. Now don’t get me wrong, it was still quite the workout but it didn’t kill me. As a matter of fact, by time I got to interval number 8 I knew for sure this was an relatively easy adjustment. The plan going forward is doing this 3 times a week then the following week increasing the speed slightly. If I stay consistent with this (with a break from speed training the 5 weeks I am in Mexico) then by the summer I should be at my goal.

I think the overall challenge is going to be trying to maintain my speed when I am out on a run. However, as the speed gets easier my hope is that I just naturally run at that speed all the time. Here’s hoping it works.

This weekend my husband and I are going up to do some more work at the trailer and will spend a couple nights there. Since I am now always planning how I am going to get my workouts in I checked the weather and couldn’t believe what I saw. Apparently in Mission BC on Saturday there will be a chance of snow. What!!!! It is the end of March, how can we be getting snow? I really hope that forecast changes before we get to the trailer. However, I will be prepared for it to be on the cold side and take the appropriate running gear so that I don’t have an excuse not to run.

Over the past couple months I have really gotten back on the fitness bandwagon. I’ll never quite understand what happened during the 6 months when I really scaled back but my head is now in a space where once I get back to peak form I am going to stay there. I have been doing everything I can to keep myself motivated and pushing myself not to the limit but in my mind getting rid of the laziness. But, to be honest, I am a 57 year old woman who suffers from osteoarthritis in one of my knees and I have issues with the muscles around one of my hips. Moreover, some days my feet and ankles ache (note, I don’t mean debilitating pain, just enough that I have become one of those people who tends to groan when I stand up). I decided if I am going to sustain my fitness over the long term I need to look at how I can make myself more comfortable.

I’ve been hearing some ads on the radio about runners and foot orthotics and I decided to do some research to see if this would be a good idea for me. Turns out good orthotics do a lot of things for people like me who walk/run a lot. The list includes helping with gait abnormalities, alignment not just through the feet but the rest of your body, stabilize your posture and help with preventative care (plantar fasciitis, shin splints, blisters, hammer toe, tendonitis to name a few). The more I researched the more I realized that this would probably be a good investment for me.

I know that you can buy over the counter orthotics but I figured it is kind of go big or go home time, I want to make sure I get the best fit orthotics that will make the most difference. I went for an assessment with a pedorthist who did a bunch of tests on my gait. There was then measurement of my muscle agility followed by an assessment of the actual structure of my feet. While I appreciate they are selling a product here, I truly believe they have identified some issues that can be rectified and make my training more comfortable. Let’s be honest, more comfortable means not having an excuse to stop.

Now these orthotics are not cheap, with the assessment they will cost about $600. I am willing to spend that kind of money but it looks like if I can get a referral from my doctor the cost will likely be covered by my extended health plan (I could also go through my podiatrist but that visit would cost me another $60). Tomorrow I have a call with my doctor to get the referral and if all goes well I will have my first fitting for my custom orthotics March 30th.

It’s funny, when I started down this journey I was willing to invest in proper running gear, expensive socks, really expensive running shoes yet had never considered investing in orthotics. It’ll be interesting to see how much I regret not looking into this sooner.

I can feel spring coming! Today we headed up to our trailer to start getting it open for the season. It always starts with Easter Weekend which is traditionally a girls’ weekend (it started nearly 2 decades ago with Mom and my sister and I have kept the tradition going). Most of the big stuff is done including a good cleaning of the inside of the trailer and necessities such as propane have been purchased. My husband and I will head back for an overnighter next Saturday to try and get the tv/satellite working as well as the hot water heater. Then everything will be ready.

Leading up to today I was getting a little stressed. It has been a busy week which included a lot of volunteering, meetings with clients, doing taxes and trying to get year end finished for one of my clients. There has not been a lot of time for much else but I still managed to get 300+ zone minutes in each day Mon-Fri. Of course there was also going out to celebrate St Patrick’s Day (also the day we toast the loss of my father in law who passed away on March 17th 11 years ago) and I was feeling the pressure. As we wanted to head to the trailer as early as possible today I opted to get up at 3:45am to get a good workout in. However, before heading out with the family yesterday I realized this was just not going to happen. After 7 weeks of not missing working out at least 6 days a week (and several where I did 7 days) I was going to have to be realistic and skip a day.

When I told my family this they all agreed it was the best idea. Oh but then the guilt happened. What if I take a day off and I lose my momentum? What if I don’t make my calorie goal for the week? Oh God, maybe I’ll go back to being lazy. What if I’m not able to run 8k again on Tuesday? Ok, time for a deep breath. I know what an expert I can be at piling the guilt on to myself which makes me feel miserable so after a bunch of beating myself up I decided time to look at what I have accomplished.

In 7 weeks I have done the following, of the 49 days I have done some form of workout 47 of them. I have walked/run a total of 723 km which works out to an average of 103 km per week. I have put in 11,536 zone minutes or an average of 1,648 where the recommended minimum is 150 minutes. And finally, I have walked over 1 million steps in the last 49 days which works out to an average of 22,000 steps a day. Yes, I have met or exceeded my goals every week, now that is an accomplishment.

So, no guilt for taking a day off, instead I am calling it my full recovery day and relishing in what I have done in the last 2 months. Tomorrow will be my normal Sunday lesser walk then I am back at it hard as ever on Monday.

I am on day 4 of using my 8lb weights and it is still tough. I know if I keep using them in a few weeks I will be increasing the reps but right now it is a bit hard to believe that will happen. Still, my arms are looking pretty toned and I know they can only improve.

Yesterday was coffee day and as always I did the short run to the coffee shop. After coffee it was time to test myself and see how much my endurance had improved. I did my usual calculate the number of blocks I wanted to go and off I went. I will say the frustrating part of this run is that due to construction the uptown area of my city has so many of the are sidewalks closed. This means I had to keep crossing a busy street in order to safely run. However, I still did it, 8 full km’s! I haven’t done that kind of run in a very long time.

This morning I checked the weather and it said that while it was going to be a bit chilly it was going to be sunny. I decided it was another good day for a run so on with my running vest and off I went. This was an awesome decision! My run along the beach today was absolutely exhilarating . There were tons of people walking and enjoying the sunshine. I saw dogs of every size imaginable having a nice time on the promenade. I got to smile and say hello to so many people. At one point I even ran into a friend who upped his speed while I slowed mine down so that we could get caught up while still moving. I admit that doing the hill at the end of the run is still a struggle but regardless, I did another 8.5 km run today and I really enjoyed it.

I’m getting more and more anxious for the weather to start getting even better so that I can completely ditch the treadmill. I am also looking forward to adding some hill training back into my workouts so that steep hill at the end of the run goes back to being less of a challenge. Funny, as I was doing my run today I just kept thinking, you’re back baby! Moreover, I want to stay this way.

Finally it is happening, the weather is improving or at least so I thought. It stopped raining here by about 8am today so I thought if the sun comes out I am going for a super walk (at least 8km). Sure enough the sun appeared so at about 10:30am I hit the road. I had already done what I usually do before heading out side, I checked the weather. It was pretty clear to me that toque, scarf and gloves would still be required. Turns out that was a great decision given I was walking along the beach and there was a pretty cold wind happening. Didn’t really matter though, it was just so nice to do a really long walk outdoors and by time I got home I was happy that I had opted to do that.

This week starts the beginning of me upping my game to work on my upper body strength. Now I have been very diligent for the last 7 weeks at including at least 5 days of strength training each week. I have successfully been working with my 5lb weights toning in particular my arms. I never let it get too easy so had increased from 3 sets of 10 reps to 3 sets of 12 and then I upped it to 3 sets of 15. I’ve been doing the 15’s for the past 2 weeks when I came to that fork in the road, do I up the number of reps or do I up the weight? Well, I decided to go with the weight.

Yesterday was my first time using the 8lb weights and I know I need to work slowly to build myself up so I started with 3 sets of 8 reps. Ok, there may be some of you reading this who think that doesn’t really sound all that challenging but trust me, those extra 3lbs are brutal. I am not doing this to gain any sort of bulk in my muscles, it is just about getting them toned. That is why I had stuck with the 5lb weights for so long. I realized though that I had decided this year I am going to (cautiously) push myself so a new goal, getting up to using 10lb weights (I can’t even imagine that right now).

I am, of course, going to have to find a game plan for when I am in Mexico the month of May. I already have a yoga mat at the condo (for doing modified crunches and full bridges) and I have some 6lb weights. However, as I keep telling my husband, I refuse to lose any ground when it comes to my fitness on this trip so it looks like I’ll be buying some heavier weights. Regardless, I will just keep doing this along the slow and steady path to get me to where I want to be.

Yes, it is all about getting stronger at this point in my journey.

Despite yesterday being a very busy day I got it all done. Of course this was helped by getting up at 3:45am so that I could hit the treadmill by 4:30am. I started off the day with a 1 1/2 hour walk on the treadmill and completed my 2nd 1 1/2 hour walk by 8:45am. I even found time to get in a couple of short 1/2 hour walks to make sure I got in all my steps. The rest of the day was taken up with meetings and volunteer work at the end of which I decided I needed to put up a dry erase calendar in my office to start trying to do a better job at keeping track of my days.

But they are back. Who you ask? Why the dreaded Canada Geese of course. I should mention my healthy fear of these creatures stems from growing up on a hobby farm where we had geese. I learned at a very young age that these can be very mean animals. I also learned it is not just their beaks biting you that you need to be concerned about but also their wings as they will beat you with them. While they are pretty docile right now I know gosling season is coming up and then they will become extremely protective of their young. When that happens I give them the widest berth imaginable to ensure my safety.

The real question is how do I know they are back. Simple, I’m back to walking my beloved beach. I figured it has gotten warm enough that it is time to treadmill less and walk outdoors more. Yesterday was a prime example as for my 2nd walk I went down to the beach and along the promenade. Yes it was raining but I just simply donned my rain slicker and headed out. It was glorious! Even the passing train didn’t bother me and I admit I only saw a handful of geese.

I decided that today instead of doing 2 hour long walks I would just do 1 long one so I headed back to the beach. Now it was raining even harder today (I am so glad I have a really good rain slicker and if I decided to run at least I have a water resistant running jacket) but that didn’t bother me in the least. I had such an enjoyable time watching people and greeting each and every one of the them a big smile and a ‘hello’. I saw some beautiful dogs (all on leash) enjoying the fresh air and the salt water spray. There were all sorts of sea birds and everyone just seemed happier. For me, I just truly loved that long walk and have already started planning how I can do more of it during the coming week.

I do have a rant though. Yesterday I was at a very well marked crosswalk in an area where the speed limit is only 30 kph. I stopped and looked both ways noting cars coming from either direction both of which were a good 1/2 block away when I got to that crosswalk. Neither of them stopped despite the fact it was my right of way. And before you think that they may not have seen me, I had on my bright yellow rain slicker which trust me is impossible to miss. So I will remind all of you again, when you are driving around in your vehicle always watch for pedestrians and give way to them every time.

Ok, I finally admitted defeat. Looking at everything I have to do tomorrow I realized there is no way, even getting up at 4am, that I am going to get everything done. So, I reached out to my fellow dog walkers and asked is someone could do my volunteer dog walking tomorrow. Now this may not seem like much but the total time I need to do this including getting there and back is an hour. Fortunately someone stepped up right away and agreed to do it for me. I was so relieved as it took just a little bit of pressure off me. Happily next week will be at least a little better.

I am still spending a fair amount of time working out on my treadmill. You would think that given it allows me to not have to deal with bad weather and the fact that I have a big screen tv that I can watch to distract myself that I could walk with ease. These past few days it has become really apparent to me that I am far too tense. By time I hit my last walk my neck and shoulders are so tense they are starting to hurt. I realized it is time to regroup and try to relax.

I learned when I first started running that it is imperative to relax and just focus and getting the workout done. Having said that, relaxing isn’t always just something that comes natural. I know that in order to do it successfully I do need to concentrate on what I am doing. That led me to today when I went back to what I was doing 2 years ago to try and take all of that tension of my upper back muscles.

Here is what I do, I take a deep breath and focus on letting my neck muscles go. The next deep breath I not only relax my shoulders I remind myself to drop them as I am exhaling. Then, it is the center of my back where I exhale and just imaging those muscles turning to mush. Finally I do my lower back which I admit sometimes is the hardest but I focus on those muscles being loose. Once I have been through all of that process it is one more deep breath and while exhaling I imagine all of the tension just leaving me.

I am not going to lie, this is not a one time process, I have to keep doing this several times during an hour long workout. Sometimes I have to do it every few minutes to keep myself in the best state of relaxation as possible. I no longer worry about my form as that is back to happening just naturally. Instead I stop listening to those voices in my head trying to distract me and instead try and find my zen place.

Is it working, well let’s just say it is a work in progress. I’m hoping once I get through this insane week that next week will be better for me. If not, I know where I will be focusing.

Yesterday was a beautiful day and I was excited because it meant I could try doing a run down to the beach. As a matter of fact at around 9:30am my sister asked if I was going to do a run and I said I planned to hit the road by 10am. Then at 9:50am I got a text asking where I was. I suddenly realized that it was Monday which is the day I lead my seniors’ walking group and usually I meet with them for coffee at 9:30am. Fortunately I was already prepped for going on a run so I just grabbed the stuff I needed and rushed to the coffee shop with my husband who apparently had also completely lost track of the fact it was Monday. That is just how my day started and it was about to go south from there.

I have a bad tendency of thinking I can do it all. That means I tend to overbook my day and in this case it is the entire week. Yesterday after I had done the walk with the seniors I was booked to start the Community Volunteer Income Tax Clinic for the afternoon. Last year I had recommended that the first day that volunteers are only given 1/2 a normal client load so that they had an hour for each client rather than the standard 1/2 hour. This is because there are often many glitches that happen with the system on that first day and there can be numerous calls to support desks. Unfortunately yesterday I had 9 clients booked between noon and 4pm and just as I expected there were all sorts of issues which had me frantically scrambling to put out fires and somehow keep to the schedule I was assigned.

Before I did the income tax clinic I had done an hour on the treadmill and of course an hour with the seniors. And, I still managed to get my strength training done. There was also the afternoon volunteer dog walking. However, I normally would have done another walk after dinner but I also had a Zoom meeting to attend. I finally had to acknowledge I just couldn’t get it all done.

That is where the obsessing came in. When I realized I wasn’t going to get in my last walk I started looking at my Fitbit app. I had only done 20k steps instead of the normal 30k goal, I would be about 5km short of my daily goal and my calories burned would be down several hundred. I spent some time staring at my Fitbit app and realized I have got to stop doing this to myself.

First of all, this was 1 day, not going back to a week of being behind. Moreover, I had done some extra walking on Sunday as it was such a nice day I felt a walk along the beach was in order. The past couple weeks I had worked so hard that it just wasn’t worth beating myself up because I had still done some good exercise. So, I put the Fitbit app away and just kept on with the rest of my evening.

Today is a new day and because I am again really overbooked I was up at 3:45am on on the treadmill by 4:30am. Strength exercises got completed before 8am and then it was on to a lovely 7k run down at the beach. It all made me stop fixating on what I hadn’t done yesterday but rather focus on what I am going to be able to accomplish today.

Oh, and the rest of the week is completely filled but I am just going to do my best and try to finish the week feeling strong and with sense of accomplishment.