A few weeks back while running through Mt.Pleasant cemetery I was greeted cheerfully from afar by Nicole Stevenson. Assembled before her was a group of 10-12 very fit looking young women. This was the same run on which we saw a deer and once again I had cause to regret having left my camera behind. To see this previous post, This is what happens when you leave the camera behind, just click on it.  Yes, we really did see a young buck in the cemetery!  And then, this group of fleet-footed young women.

Today we ran past Nicole and two charges.  I stopped and asked if they had time for a photo to which she said yes.  Then she mentioned that they had 50 seconds as they were in the rest portion of their speed session.  Off they went but we caught up to them once again, on their rest portion.  I made a hasty introduction of my running buddy and she suggested that we get a photo of her and I.

The topic of why there is such a dearth of female coaches is a library section in itself but suffice to say, I’m thrilled to see that an athlete of Nicole’s calibre, good heartedness and grace is leading the way as a distance running coach.  Bravo!  She is now associated with the University of Toronto Track Club.  However, one cannot talk about coaching and Nicole and not mention Hugh Cameron, her former coach who also coached Sylvia Ruegger who still holds the Canadian marathon record for women. Nicole’s personal best for the marathon is a world-class 2:32 and one of the all-time top times for women.

Her website www.nicolestevenson.ca

 

 

When pressed for an answer to this, I usually say that my favourite food is ice cream. When I was pregnant, I had been a vegetarian for 5 years. In spite of carefully calculated meals of complementary proteins as laid out by the old vegetarian classic, Diet for a Small Planet and a first-year Nutritional Food Science course at U of T, I found that I seemed to be lacking certain nutrients and got sick more often.

I feel that what constitutes a healthy diet is quite individual and also depends on activity level.  I had a hard time gaining weight when I was pregnant and at around the 5 month period, began to crave meat.   To boost my calorie intake I would eat tubs of Haagen Daz ice cream although I found it less pleasurable because of the prescriptive nature of the endeavour.  Who would have thought that eating Haagen Daz would seem something of a chore.  My favourite ice cream flavours are coffee and Ben and Jerry’s, Chunky Monkey.  Chunky Monkey is banana flavoured with walnuts and chocolate chunks.

Tonight I had dinner  at the Pickle Barrel.  One of my favourite indulgences is a super-size smoked meat sandwich.  At the Pickle Barrel you get the choice of lean, medium or fatty.  I love a fatty smoked meat sandwich.  To offset the fat factor, I chose a garden salad instead of the fries.  The waitress forgot my order and the sandwich arrived with the fries.  It took great willpower to resist the fries, left on my plate, once the salad arrived.

Anyhow, on a generally healthier note, here is a photo of one of my favourite recipes in Diet for a Small Planet (Frances Moore Lappe), Spanish Bulgur.  I have eaten a whole lot of this over the past 3 decades.  I sometimes return to it when I am in tapering mode for a marathon.  My special tabouli recipe is an adaptation from this cookbook, merged with an Anne Lindsay recipe.  And, it is something that I tend to make in the weeks preceding a marathon.  I’ll publish my secret recipe when I get to that phase of my training.  It is another of my all-time favourite foods, and my very favourite healthy food.

Incidentally the book pictured here is my husband’s copy.  I finally had to get rid of mine.  There was a time when many of our generation owned this book, referred to at times as a “hippie” classic, for whatever that’s worth.

Bon appetit!

Only poetry can describe how good I felt on my run this morning.  I started out earlier than usual and enjoyed the full spectrum of skyscape, from night to dawn and sunrise.  Conjoined with a beautiful dawn, the reverential music of Arvo Part ,and sense that my body has gotten stronger over the past couple of weeks, Walt Whitman’s, I Sing the Body Electric and Emily Dickinson’s “I dwell in possibility” had resonance.

To be able to enjoy a morning run on a crisp, autumn day – what could be finer!

For Occupation–This–
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise-

Emily Dickinson

I decided to run a 5K race because I knew that an Oakville friend, was considering running it.  She is a very busy person, who works full-time and has two boys age-6 and under (I hope I got the ages right!).  I was apprehensive because of the proximity of the race to my Saturday long run but eased my nervousness by approaching the race as a tempo run.  The weather that day was a dream.  While waiting for the start gun to go off, the memory of the exquisite feeling of having every muscle in your body prepared for top-performance was awakened.

However I felt happy enough having a lot of my muscles prepared for the race and look forward to my return to top form.  My dream goal for the day was to run under 23 minutes although, I knew this would be a challenge to do this while keeping in the tempo run zone of my heartrate.  The last 5K’s I ran were over 2 1/2 years ago.  I was running these consistently under 20 minutes.  A favourite flat and fast course used to be the  Subaru 5K in Jordan.

The gun went off and I eased into a steady tempo pace, checking my heartrate watch constantly to ensure I was in the 150-153 beats per minute zone.  I experienced quite a shock at the 1K mark to find that I was on pace to run OVER 25 minutes.  Each KM marker told the same story.  Finally, at the 4K mark I decided to run closer to 160-165.  I was pleased to see 23-something when I crossed the finish line.

It was obvious that the KM markings were wrong.  What a relief!  I think my husband was relieved that I was so happy to run 23 minutes.  He has seen his share of despondency over dissappointing race times.  Uncharacteristically, he has been urging me to train harder.  When I commented that this is unusual for him to be so hands-on in his support he commented, “I don’t want to have to bring you home in a wheelchair when you run your marathon!”  As dramatic as this sounds, the bottom line is, the less you train, the more you will hurt.  Ugh!

As for my friend, her time was thrown off by the mis-marked course as she had given up on her goal and cruised in, only to find out that she was a few seconds away from going under 21 minutes, which was her goal.

I did a 10 minute cool-down, checked the results and was surprised to see that I was 1st in the 50+ category.  Let the comeback begin 🙂

The best thing is that I was able to run semi-hard, so soon after my long run and that I felt okay this morning.  I ran a very easy 5K and then walked for an hour at lunch.  My total running for the week was 50 miles.  This week I must do close to 60 miles.  No time to waste a single day of training.

For I dance
And drink and sing,
Till some blind hand Shall brush my wing.
William Blake

Our family celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday, Sunday with a small dinner. Normally, immediate-GTA-familygatherings are 12 adults and 11 kids but this weekend, my siblings were spending time with the other side of their family so we invited my parents to join us for a cozy 5 person dinner.

My dad loves prime rib so that became the order of the day along with maple flavoured sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, sauteed brussell sprouts with red onions and a quinoa pilaf with pumpkin seeds and cranberries. For appetizers we had baked brie with maple syrup and pecans and a store-bought salmon and spinach mousse.

The finale was a belated birthday cake for my husband, a chocolate roll. After serving the cake my son took a bite and said to me. “”Mom, did you want to have a taste of your cake?”” Suddenly it dawned on me why the consistency of the batter had seemed different. I had forgotten the sugar. Everyone gamely, sprinkled sugar on the cake and remarked that it wasn’t too bad but . . .

In preparing for the meal, I violated one of my main rules of stress avoidance, which is “never shop on the same day that you entertain”, except for flowers and fresh bread.  And have enough done in advance that you can easily fit in a run”. Happily, in spite of cleaning, cooking and shopping on the day-of, preparations were relaxed.  As for the run, I have to confess that it was touch and go however I had put it on the optional list for the day because I had decided to race.  At 4:30 p.m. I ran 20 minutes, to stay loose but with the long run the previous day and a 5K on Thanksgiving Monday, backing off was in order.

The race was a fundraiser for Kerr Street Ministries whose mission includes feeding the hungry in Oakville.  Stay tuned for race details and photos later today or tomorrow.

Over the weekend our thoughts and prayers go to those who do not experience abundance, as we give thanks for our good fortune and seek ways to contribute to the greater good.

A happy and blessed Thanksgiving to all!

O God, to those who have hunger give bread; and to those who have bread give the hunger for justice.

— Latin American prayer

May God bless you with the discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that you will live deep in your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people and the earth so that you will work for justice, equity and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer so you will reach out your hands to comfort them and change their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with the foolishness to think that you can make a difference in the world, so you will do the things which others say cannot be done.

–Franciscan prayer

Saturday long run day

My husband has been able to join us for a small portion of the run for the past few weeks and this week stayed with us for 25 minutes.  He is hopeful that his new orthotics will speed up his recovery along with a routine of weights, stretching and strengthening exercises prescribed by a physiotherapist.  He no longer jokes about knee surgery, so this is good news.

I ran about 16 miles and shortly after returning home, took a hot bath, had a couple of bowls of mini-wheats and then a latte, courtesy of my husband.  Hot baths post-long-run are tricky as I sometimes fall asleep in the bathtub and it is difficult to gear up for the day.  I confessed to my husband that I felt the need for a nap and in spite of the whack of Thanksgiving related chores on our list, he graciously acquiesced to a nap.  So I napped to the drone of the vacuum as my husband took care of this previously assigned chore.

A couple of hours later I woke, and feeling very drowsy, announced my hunger.  “Would milady like some scrambled eggs?”  She sure would.  Sympathy abounded in the next few hours but ended abruptly with the start of the football game.  Ah well but I do give thanks for those hours of coddling.  Thanks to my honey.

p.s.  The Riders lost but he is getting over it.

 

 

 

 

My fine fall day started with the usual run to the lake.  I listened to Renee Fleming’s Dark Horse a collection of Indie hits sung by the illustrious soprano.  I heard in the spring that she is coming to Toronto, however it is a weekend that I will be out of town.  Last visit, my son and I went to see her on an evening which saw her perform 7 encores, including a rendition of Summertime.  As dawn blushed upon the lake, I was there with my camera.

 

 

On my way to work I saw another special sight, a young man playing the Chinese table harp.

 

 

Emerging from the underground at York Mills I notice that the fall colours are developing nicely. It is too bad that Yonge street at that point becomes more like a mini-highway, and is not a very pleasant pedestrian experience.  However, I was looking forward to an exploratory walk at lunch after getting a glimpse of calmer streets tucked away in a southerly corner of this intersection yesterday.

At lunch I headed for the Hogg’s Hollow area, the southeast quadrant of the York Mills-Yonge intersection.  I walked for an hour and felt as though I was in a small town such as Howth, Ireland which I was reminded of.  We traveled to Ireland a couple of years back and enjoyed a pleasant day in Howth, which is just south of Dublin.  My husband was intrigued by this hitherto unknown neighbourhood and we plan to go back for a walk soon.  With nearly 65 years of running under our joint belts, we find ourselves surprised to know there is a scenic route in the city that we have not run through.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a fine day indeed but a long week, after many days or rising early, I’ll bring my post to a halt and allow myself the liberty of jumping from my reference to Howth to the memory of a much-enjoyed glass of Guinness in Dublin with a photo memory of that.

Happy fine, fall day and to all a good night!

 

 

 

 

I received interesting feedback last weekend from my run group about the elements of a successful blog.  I was told that one mistake that I’ve made is to link food consumption to exercise, as in two posts I made called A calorie burned is a calories earned for a treat!  Click here for post 1 and then post 2.   Apparently, I should identify 3-4 themes, and the less congruency between the the themes, the better.  Well, I have to say that I don’t really get it.

So I’m told, there is a blogger who did very well by adding to his foreign policy blog, the additional elements of zombies and Salma Hayek-sightings and ended up making more money on his blog than from his job in academia.  Until this time, I had not heard of Salma Hayek but now I know that many consider her the sexiest woman on earth.  I also know that inexplicably, there are many men interested in zombies.  It is possible that the foreign policy blogger may write exceedingly well on those two topics in addition to his main topic but it strikes me that the intention is mainly to draw traffic from search engines to his blog.

Anyhow this did get me thinking about what, in addition to running are my secondary themes are or could be.  So there’s food (without the guilt?), organizing/time-management, interesting books/poetry and  what else . . . ?  I suggested shoes, and got a big no-no, that being still about the running.

When I mentioned time-management I was told that this was still about running.  True. I had posted something saying efficiency gains equals more miles.  After thinking about this I realized that in fact, I had got the paradigm wrong and in fact the efficiency gains are not about running more miles but about being able to do the others things I enjoy while running more miles.  In thinking about the time spent training for a marathon something else occurred to me.  When not training for marathon but running to keep fit, I consider running 7 hours a week, the minimum with an hour for weight training and an hour for stretching.  In fact, the marathon training is not the total time spent running but the extra time added to the fitness routine.

The extra time is in the range of 3-5 hours a week for the running itself and then a couple of extra hours for additional sleep, while at the peak of training.  So in my time accounts book, it is not that much extra time, and of course the key period is about 10 weeks long.  At one time, I thought the benefits of marathon training were superfluous however the older I get, and feel that the quality of life that comes from intense training is tremendous.

I kept a journal from age 12 to age 32 – so I do enjoy the discipline of writing a bit about my day.  However, I am trying to limit the time spent on this to 15-20  minutes.  For me, this means that the entries are mainly anecdotal.  It is possible that I am spending less time writing emails as I’m finding that I get very few emails asking how I am.  Is that because friends and family are reading my blog?  It occurred to me yesterday that balance in our busy lives might involve keeping up with the day to day stuff by visiting friends blogs and then making phone calls or (gasp) writing snail mail letters.

As for the daily run; One of the features of my runs in the last couple days is that I have been listening to The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe.  The only problem with audio books is that when you hear something that you might normally highlight or underline, well, that is difficult.  My husband did find an e-book of the same, and with quite a bit of effort tracked down one passage I thought I might one day want to quote.

I also did 10 x 45 seconds (about 200 meters) fast.  For this I switched to my fast-running music which includes Led Zepplin’s, Immigrant Song, Holiday by Green Day, Rasputin by Boney M and I Want to Move It, Move It.  I’m back on track for marathon training however it is slowly dawning on me that I am going to be a good deal slower than I had planned.  Part of me is thinking I should delay the marathon but I know I want to run one and I think the longer I wait, the harder it will be to get back to it —- We shall see

 

 

Was that Salma Hayek I saw go in there?

Last Saturday

The first mile of the 14 mile route was marked by colourful art on a fruit market van.

 

 

 

 

Our group ran uphill, in Moore park and then through the cemetery.  As we left the park via the Merton street exit that connects with the beltline, a porta potty was spotted.  This is exciting news for runners, who celebrate the addition of another potential pit stop on primo running routes whilst logging 15 plus miles.  The early part of the day was lovely and some fall colours are starting to develop in Cedarvale Ravine.

Yesterday

 

 

I ran through HTO park, the urban beach quite early in the morning.  The waterfront is fairly busy in the early morning with exercisers, dog walkers, city staff, firemen, police, Porter staff, enroute to work.  So, if my mom is reading this post.  I hope any fears she might have for my safety are quashed.  Although, I do not run through Coronation park in the dark and take the street route, past a number of high-rise condos.

 

 

Farewell to mama kanga and baby who were spotted leaving our home to take residence in Kitchener-Waterloo with their owner. How the decades have flown by as the 20th birthday of this duo soon approaches.

 

 

La vida loca!

Daughters of one of my Saturday run group are taking part in elementary school cross-country races at Ashbridge’s Bay in the Beach. Good luck to them.

Something I learned from my many years of coaching is that most kids aren’t thinking about winning a medal but rather worry about finishing last.  We had a special award for last-place finishes which only was claimed once.   Making it to the start line is where the attitude of a champion begins.  Another thing I have learned is that most people are good losers but in fact it is a challenge to be a gracious winner at times.

This photo records the year that Dewson elementary upset John Ross Robertson, the perennial victors in the Boys 7 & under category at the City Finals.  Coaching a team of 80 or more runners is much more nerve-wracking than running one’s own race.

I have wonderful memories of my many years of coaching including my participation in the races as the “rabbit”.  Sure wish I had photos of being pursued by over 200 boys age 8 and up for 100 meters, wondering whether I would be overtaken, only to have the whole crew run out of steam and run far more slowly, for the remaining 800 meters of the race distance.   Pace yourselves girls.