UBC Run Study

The Road to Redemption

Running

Another half marathon has come and gone; my feet and leg muscles no longer ache with every movement I make and my insides are once again hydrated… well, as hydrated as can be in this crazy assed heat. As is always the case for me post race, I’ve been thinking a lot the last few days about the journey to redemption: the triumphs, the challenges, the lessons, the moments, the people. The last 15 weeks was spent again with a select group of women, between the ages of 18 and 60, volunteering their legs for the UBC run study, which is investigating running injuries in women. The road to redemption was not only my journey but theirs also. Like the previous study, most of these women had never run a half before, many were novice, they were excited, they were nervous, some came to the first session with knocking knees. […]

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15 weeks: friends, fun, fortitude

Running, Training

When I agreed to take on the leadership role of the UBC run study last fall, I was at a crossroads with my running; I was in a state that was fast becoming find some inspiration, find something to regain the love, or move on. When the opportunity was first presented, I had some hesitations: I had never led a training session before; I am seriously directionally inept; what about the Little Ring sitting; could I put my goals aside to help others with their goals? Well. The 15 weeks of training ended about three weeks ago and this week I am about to embark on my second stint as run leader with the UBC run study. If that’s not evidence enough that this was very much the missing link I needed, I don’t know what is. Finally, I was happy running again. Some days the program was more challenging

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All struggling. All smiling.

Diabetes, Running, Training, Uncategorized

You win some, you lose some. And yesterday’s run, much to my dismay, was very much in the loser file. I could not get my bearings at all. My ankles felt crazy wobbly, and the upper half of me felt as though it was going all over the place too. My breathing was heavily laboured. I was crazy overheating. My stomach innards were flopping. And Dear Diabetes was being a major jerk face! I woke up at 4 a.m.. I didn’t intend to, my blood sugars went low, and by the time I’d finished slamming back some oj, my brain had turned on, my eyes wide awake, there was no falling back into a slumber. That was just the beginning. It seems Dear Diabetes is making a habit of getting in the way of my Sunday runs these days with her stupid hypoglycemic ways. So I thought yesterday I’d head

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The week of so-called “easy”

Diabetes, Running, Training

Easy schmeasy! According to our running program, this week is classified “easy” week, but I think the designer of the program uses that term a little too freely. On Tuesday, we had to run 40 minutes with 20 minutes at lactate threshold pace (for me: between 5:00 and 5:20 min/km) and the only way I can see that as being “easy” is that, unlike the previous week, we were allotted a 2-minute walk break to split the 20 minutes into two segments of 10. While I wasn’t anywhere near puking, and felt I could definitely keep the pace going, I was sucking back wind pretty good. And then there was tonight’s “easy” run, where we ran 30 minutes with 10 intervals of 30 seconds each at 3 km goal pace (for me: between 4:30 and 4:50 min/km) with a 30 second walk between each. The goal for tonight was not

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Running roller coaster

Diabetes, Running

For those of you keeping tabs, and thank you so much for doing so, the results of the run vs. sloth week are as follows: Run: 4 Sloth: 0 While I know I am the only one who can truly get me out the door running, it helped HUGE knowing that I’d hear from a few of you if I didn’t. This week could easily have been a one or none kind of running week. There were excuses aplenty to be had: It’s New Year’s. It’s cold. I have no one to run with. I’m tired. It’s raining monsoons. But, your words of encouragement; your words of prodding; and for some of you, your commitment to get out there running with me, either alongside or from afar, meant a world of difference. Seriously, thank you. Four in the pocket for the week is a fantastic way to end my three-week

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