Open Heart, Open Mind by Clara Hughes is the book I selected for this prompt. Unless you’ve been living under a rock since 1996, you would recognize Clara as the face of Bell Let’s Talk Campaign and as the only Canadian athlete to win medals at both Summer and Winter Olympic Games. 

This woman is incredible. Her success has been the result of huge inner turmoil. A alcoholic father created an abusive and instable childhood which fueled destructive behaviours that at times were channeled into athletics and other times booze and food.  She describes the highs and lows of her emotional state through the chronology of her athletic career but the highs don’t predictably come with success in her career. 

I couldn’t put this book down. Hughes is an engaging writer and has had some incredible experiences. Her description of her bike tour up the Dempster Highway made me wish I had my bike packed and ready for a trip, rightthissecond. 

Landscapes and people speak to this woman through her bike. Since the bicycle is open, she is approachable and much closer to her surroundings than when riding in a car. Hughes seems to crave this openness, as a way to recharge herself but also to keep moving, often to ride away from her demons. This moving away from darkness felt familiar to me. When I’m struggling with something in my life I choose running to escape, and running until it hurts distracts me from mental pain. My husband’s stroke illicited this response. Rather than talking through my fears and worries, I chose to run. A lot. In the end, I had to face the impact of his health head on, rather than trying to run from it. Hughes has had to face her mental health issues head on, now that she is retired. I enjoyed reading about what she does to keep herself well and I think some of the strategies she uses would work for me too, in times of trouble. 

This book will be staying on my bookshelf.

Books read: 5/52

Before, on the left, taken beginning of July 2016. The pictures on the right were taken the beginning of January 2017. 

I’ve been attending BABEies Bootcamp at Limitless Performance (www.limitless-performance.ca) and man, has it been awesome!

Three times a week, I go and have my ass handed to me and I love it. Employing HIIT principles with flavours of CrossFit, the talented coaches of BABE-ies have whipped me into great shape. 

Since July, I’ve gained five pounds of muscle, lost 6% body fat and managed to close my diastasis recti to 1.5-2cm! That’s all with not watching what I’m eating. Actual weight loss is 7lbs but because of the muscle mass gains I have actually lost roughly two dress sizes. These results make me really happy and they are pretty motivating!

Non-scale or empirical improvements include improved posture- I no longer round my shoulders forward and my hips have more of a posterior tilt and a neutral spine instead of tucking my bum, better fitting clothes, better performance at hockey and I am much stronger. Strength is a good thing. The kidlets just keep getting heavier.

The programme is tailored to encourage post-partum moms to gain strength and cardiovascular fitness within their capabilities. For instance, a number of us are working on healing our abdominal wall and pelvic floor muscles. There is a sequence of excerises we do to focus on helping those areas heal. Additionally, all excerises within the workout are offered with modifications to protect our healing bodies. It’s awesome to workout with a group of peers that are dealing with the same fitness concerns that I am and to have a knowledgeable group of coaches to ask questions.

My time with the LP family is winding down as I have to return to work at the beginning of May. To maximize my time left, I completed a Whole30 in January and I plan to continue eating within a Whole30/paleo framework. It appears that my body responds well to a low carb, high fat balance. The Whole30 plate template (palm sized protein, thumb-sized amount of fat, and fill the rest of the plate with veggies) is easy and doesn’t require tracking or measuring. Eating like this and continuing BABE-ies Bootcamp, should see excelerated results. I can’t wait.

Thanks to the coaches Ally, Michelle, and Sarah and all my classmates! I’ve really enjoyed working out with you!

The Blackthorn Key by Kevin Sands was a happy find at Costco the other day, along with the second book in the series, The Mark of the Plague. (Watch for MotP to show up in my list later on. I’m using it for prompt #30: A book with pictures.)

Kevin Sands is Canadian and Blackthorn Key is children’s literature. My two favourite things. Mr. Sands did not disappoint. Action, adventure, and cyphers to solve made this a fun and quick read.  If you like Harry Potter, Dirk Pitt novels, solving puzzles and are looking for a bit of historical fiction too, this is your book. Probably your series, but I’ll confirm after book two.

Christopher Rowe is an apothecary apprentice. Our hero is young but clever enough that you don’t want to throw punch him because he does dumb things all the time… Just sometimes. He thinks quickly and we get to interactively solve puzzles with him. It’s pretty neat. I will note that Blackthorn is a bit dark and violent for the under 11-12 crowd but if it gets them reading than maybe it’s worth the conversation? The pace is pretty good, although there are a few bumps where things a just a bit too convenient and moved past without much exposition. Overall, I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

Number of books completed: 4/52

On the reading front, I’ve started a couple books but haven’t really buckled down into either of them. This week has been insane (more to come on that in a few days) and The Magpie has been sick with a fever the last two days. It all comes to a no reading time conclusion. I have some extended ‘passenger in car’ time approaching so I should get caught up again soon.

In fitness land, I’m continuing with the Winter session of BABEies Boot camp at Limitless Performance. Of course everything is still modified because of this frustrating diastasis recti. I’m down to a 1.5-2cm gap at my navel but the fascia is tightening so it’s slowly improving. Three days a week of HIIT. It’s kicking my ass. In fact, I’m sure to post some transformation pictures…

Also coming up in fitness land is a 10K trail run in May. Better get running!!

My Whole30 is going well. Pants are fitting better and I’m eating lots of vegetables. Cooking lots of new recipes too. It’s really made my skin bright I think, despite my sleep deprivation:

Seriously a nap sounds so good right now.

A fresh new year is here and therefore is time to post my goals for this year. 

The are some lofty ones… Goals that aren’t running and fitness related, some that are, and some that are just hopes for the year.

1. Read 40 books + 12 bonus books this year as part of the Popsugar 2017 Book Challenge. Watch for a Reading page, tracking my progress. Email hoodieruns@gmail.com with suggestions!
2. Run a 10K trail race, Race the Falls, with my sister.
3. Complete a Whole30 in January. Day 1, is tomorrow! 
4. Sleep train my disaster, non-sleepers.
5. Develop and follow a regular fitness (strength and conditioning) routine. 

Let’s go 2017, you are a building year.

Happy New Year friends.

Wow. 

It was a long day. A long but awesome day.

The race:

At the start for 7:30am, coffee and dry gear in hand, the Hoodlet and I checked in at Auburn and suited up. We were on the bus for 8:30am and dropped off for the 250m hike in to the start. 

The atmosphere on the bus was subdued, mostly nervous energy. Except me. I was giddy energy. We were dropped off at a secret location at the side of the road and hiked in. 

A tree was selected for the start line and a line was drawn in the dirt. We counted down: five, four, three, two, one, go! And so started what proved to be the flattest five km of the entire race… It wasn’t but fresh legs! Endorphins! Optimism!

As we progressed, the trail became more and more technical. And more hilly. At one point we were hiking up a narrow ridge, with a long, muddy fall to either side. Three points of contact were necessary in a few cases with the slick fallen leaves and rocks and smattering of rain. Oh, and tired legs.

At least three hills were big and bad enough to have names. I cursed at them. One descent had the narrowest slippery stairs; another had a guide wire wrapped in a garden hose. There were a few stream crossings where I cooled my blister off. (Martin the Blister was care of the new trail shoes I wore… such a rookie move but glad I made that decision because trying to do this run without trail shoes would have been nuts.) Plenty of wet leaves, mud, roots and rocks littered the single track trail. This technically challenging section comprised the middle third of the race. 

The final third included less demanding road and trail sections but they all seemed to be uphill!

I felt pretty good through 12.5km. By 17km, my wheels were starting to fall off. By 19km I think I might have gladly accepted a ride home had I been offered one, especially after we ran through an actual field of shit.

The Maitland Trail is very well blazed and The Bad Thing race directors also flagged turns. Pretty straightforward but we still managed to lose the trail once, missing a 90° right turn but a 50km runner waved us back to the trail. 

In the final kilometre we got to wade through the very chilly Maitland River which was very welcome to cool off Martin the Blister, but unwelcome in that I was really regretting carrying my phone if my legs suddenly cramped and I went down. I survived, upright.

Lessons learned:

• A single long run of 12km, on the road, several weeks before the race is nowhere near enough training. 
• This race is way harder than Run For The Toad. Treat it with respect.
• Carrying a hand bottle is a bad idea. You need your hands for catching falls, pulling yourself up hills and wiping the tears and snot from your face.
• Running with your sister is the best.

Conclusions:

I finished. I did not break anything. None of the things I was worried about came to pass. I had SO. MUCH. FUN.!!!! Race Huron, you put on a kickass race! 

Working so long and hard and sharing the experience with your sister is awesome. I love you, Kiddo! Thanks for indulging my crazy and muling my out of shape ass through the last 15km!

I’ll be back next year.

I’m sitting in the hallway of my parents’ home, waiting on a routine disrupted, over-tired toddler to succumb to the Sandman. A toddler that is very stubborn. She comes by this trait honestly, as any of you who know me can attest. While she fights sleep, my head is racing with scenarios for tomorrow’s run. Since I think I’ll be sitting here awhile, I might as well put some of these thoughts on the Internet so you can all see my crazy.

Goals for tomorrow:

1. Finish.
2. Don’t break anything.
3. Win. Bahahaha, just kidding!

What I’m worried about:

1. Finishing. I am very undertrained for this race. My longest run wasn’t even half the 25km distance and it was nearly six weeks ago. I think. Maybe longer. I DON’T EVEN REMEMBER.
2. Breaking something. Not in an abrupt, catastrophic way but more in the shitty, “Oops, I rolled my ankle in the first 10km… Meh, it seems fine… I’ll just keep running. [Three weeks after the race]… Fuck, it is stress fractured,” kind of way. You know, like I did two years ago during Run For The Toad.
3. For doing so shitty that I embarrass and slow down my sister, The Hoodlet. Hi Hoodlet! Thanks for doing this with me!
4. Having to fight off a beat. BEAR! I meant bear.
5. Having to fight off a cougar.
6. Getting lost.
7. Seeing the Labcoat Guy. Watch Into the Dark (four episodes).
8. My kids being tyrants while I’m away.
9. Cracking my phone screen.
10. Having to poop in the woods.

That is just a top ten of my crazy. You’re welcome. 

Note to self: pack toilet paper.

Race report to follow.