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If you'd like to get in touch with me fire me an email to lefort.a@gmail.com. I'd love to hear from others who love running, food and gadgets.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Running Log 2011: Week #33

Following the solid base I laid down last week, I managed to log a whopping 105km this week! It was the first time ever that I've crossed the 100km barrier and I must say, I'm surprised...for the following reasons:

  • My weight is no longer dropping as it has in the past little while. After hitting 158 a few weeks ago I'm back up to 161 and maintaining that quite well. This is great news to me as I continue to pound the pavement at 100km/week. 
  • My legs are feeling good in a way I could not have imagined during such high volume. I figured I'd be a zombie, but no, I feel rather fit and strong.

I've got another 100km week this week, and then I'll be toeing the line at the Springbank 5km road race on September 11th! I'm curious to see how that goes. :D

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

The Running Blogosphere has gone AWOL

It's always a sure sign that runners are building up a solid base of killage come late summer when their blogging efforts seem to drop off considerably. Where as I used to get multiple daily updates in my RSS Reader, I now get maybe a few a week. Good for them, it's great to put in the work....but c'mon, think of your readers runners.

I've also fallen prey to this trend. It seems all my latest blog posts are weekly running recaps. How boring. I'll see if I can whip up a new and interesting post for all my loyal fans.

Running Log 2011: Week #33

This week was a bit of a breakthrough week for me as I ran 7 solid days with nearly no issues to report on and those pesky toe blisters seem to be behind me (for now).  I logged my heaviest week of running in recent history, topping the scales at 97km. It's taking all the restraint in the world to not step out the door to just squeeze the extra 3km I would need to reach the magical 100km barrier. I hear you level up as soon as you've run 100km in a week, but I guess I'll have to wait a bit longer.

Log for the week:

Monday, August 15, 2011

Running Log 2011: Week #32

After two very solid weeks of killage, mostly easy and long runs, I have been sidelined for the last two days due to a little toe that won't stop bitching at me whenever I place a shoe around it. I don't know what it is lately, I've now dealt with 3 blisters on my toes in the last 3 weeks and this last one has been especially painful, forcing me to skip out on my long run this past week. 

In the grand scheme of things though, all is well. I logged 160km in 2 weeks, and hit 73km this past week. I'm still progressing well through this stupid injury, though it's getting awfully lonely running alone all the time. Hopefully I can return to running with the club this week.

I also did 2 solo workouts this week, a 20min tempo (5km) and 7x300m hill repeats (@3:40/km). It was great to get back to working hard on the legs. Now to sort out this pesky toe pain.


Tuesday, August 9, 2011

How to motivate yourself to run when you hate to run

Let's have a little fun.  Does this post's title describe how you feel about running? If it does, too bad, you aren't meant to run. Don't even bother. You hate running, why would you want to motivate yourself to do something you hate?

Why don't you just go out and buy this shirt and relax a bit instead....?


the inspiration behing this post came from a recent visitor to my blog who searched google for 'How to motivate yourself to run when you hate to run'. I figured I'd have some fun and answer the question as well.

Part 2 of My Life-Fitness Balance as featured on Passing White Daisies!

As I mentioned a few days ago, a good friend of mine recruited a few of her coolest cats to co-write a 3 part piece on Fitness-Life balance.  Part 1 was published a few days ago now and as of this morning, Maxine published Part 2:

Fitness-Life Balance Part II: Habits- Balanced and Unbalanced


So there you have it folks, another great read on achieving and maintaining your fitness-life balance. Stay tuned for Part 3 in the coming days.

As always, check out the following blogs:

Passing White Daisies
Keeping Natalie Honest

Monday, August 8, 2011

As a Runner, should I tell people about my goals?

pre-amble: I originally wrote this in March, and just discovered I never posted it.  The first chunk is how I felt then, I've added current comments and thoughts below, and you'll notice that my position on this topic has shifted a bit. Cheers!

Goals....what a loaded word. For some the use of such a word forebodes impending failure, for a few it means success. To most, it's a bit of both worlds: You win some, you lose some.

Today I'd like to discuss the importance of keeping goals to yourself.  This may seem counter intuitive, but I'd like to explain why I, and many others, feel that telling people about your goals dooms you for failure right out of the gate.

Have you ever had an idea, a goal perhaps and felt immediate pride in deciding to conquer it? Perhaps you decided to shed some weight, save some money, get a new job or spend more time reading your favorite author.  As soon as you settled on that goal you felt driven, you felt great...finally you were going to tackle something that has been looming over you for what might seem like ages. Ever felt like this? I know I do on a nearly daily basis....but what we choose to do next is the single most important step in determining our eventual success. What ever could it be?

Over the years I've come to learn that if you want to succeed at setting goals and completing them, keep them to yourself.

That's right...there's a little known phenomenom that I've noticed over the years that occurs once you've told someone that you plan on doing X, seeing Y or being Z. What do you think happens when you tell someone the good news that say, you're planning on running a marathon. You get instant gratification from their vote of confidence ('Good for you', 'You are amazing!', etc) and you quickly forget to put your plan in motion because this instant gratification feeds your reward system, and for all intents and purposes, you may as well have already completed the goal at this point.

I used to notice this in many of the things I undertook...when I stepped back and analyzed why I wasn't successful at following through with my goals, I realized it was because I had already received some reward for simply deciding on the goal and announcing it to my friends, family and coworkers. It took me ages to figure this out, but in today's wonderfully wide world web, you can learn it today, in under 5 minutes. Oh, you're welcome!

aside: This is my most current position on what to do with your goals, to publicize or not.

So, I used to feel that telling anyone about your goals was dooming yourself for failure, and as I have learned that not everything is black and white in this world of ours, I've realized that telling some people certain things can in fact increase your chances of succeeding in your goal.

It turns out there are people in our lives that love nothing more than to help us succeed in our goals. Find those people and accept their helping offers. These are the people that motivate, excite, ground and focus you in your goals.  The people who sit by, simply giving you a high five or a kind word, are best left out of your plans. These people will simply feed your reward system far too soon in the process: keep them for later on, when you're nearing the end and need a second, third or fourth wind to get you across the finish line.

So the next time you set a running goal and want to succeed, pick your allies wisely and I can guarantee you will surprise even yourself!

Sunday, August 7, 2011

The End of a Season, the Start of a New One...


July was a scorcher of a month and with record low rainfall it was dry while being the muggiest I can remember feeling in years.  July saw me wrap up the first training block of 2011, a block of training that had minor setbacks but still proved to be very successful.

In July I hit the track for my last race and dove into two 5km races on the road...one of which saw me take the win and run the perfect race, while the second race yielded a subpar result, but tons of fun! I guess I can't always be shooting 100%, so I'll take the minor downs with the ups as they come.

July was light on killage as I was tapering for a few races and has 1 week completely off. Still just a hair over 220km, so nothing to balk at.

Running Log 2011: Week #27 - #31

Wow, again, I've fallen way behind in my running log. So here's like, 5 weeks worth in one post.

Week #27

  • 72km run, one day off
  • Two solid workouts, legs were done come Sunday
  • Swapped out a 15km long run for a 45km bike ride along the Thames
  • Last 1500m race of the year, a slightly disappointing 4:32
Week #28
  • 52km run, 2 days off
  • Last track workout of the season, 8x400m repeats at 3km pace
  • Final road race of the track training season, a 17:30 effort in downtown London
  • Weekend off
Week #29
  • Off week as mandated by Coach.
  • Recovering from Corneal Ulcer
Week #30
  • 56km run, 1 day off
  • All easy runs, eye is still useless, getting back into the groove
  • Long run of 15km
Week #31

  • 87km run, no days off
  • All easy runs again, with a slight progression effort on Thursday (13km)
  • Long run of 18km

Saturday, August 6, 2011

My Life-Fitness Balance as featured on Passing White Daisies!

frikkin awkward
A good friend of mine, Maxine, approached me a few weeks ago to help write an article on my philosophies behind my fitness-life balance. I couldn't resist helping out so I set out to think about the topic and I'm proud to announce that Maxine has now posted Part 1 of 3 to her blog.

The article includes her perspective and that of another mutual friend, who also happens to blog, (go Sudbury!!!!) and I must say it's a great view into how three completely different folk approach a very challenging problem in their very own way.

I recommend reading it, and stay tuned for Part 2 and 3.  I also recommend checking out the following blogs, both written by Maxine and Natalie, two immensely inspiring women.

Read Fitness-Life Balance Part I: The People and our Fitness-Life Balance Philosophies


Blogs to read:

Passing White Daisies
Keeping Natalie Honest

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

You're Never Too Old!

To Try Something New. Just Get Out There. Try It.

It's Like Drowning Flies in your own Sweat

Well, it's now been just over two weeks since I was diagnosed with a corneal ulcer, a nasty bacterial infection and what appeared to be a fungal infection to boot. It all happened so quickly, in well under 24 hours I was crippled and after 6 hours in urgent care, relegated to a darkened room for 3 days with absolutely nothing to do but drown in my thoughts.

Since then I've been able to slowly return to normalcy and I'm proud to say I'm back at work putting in full days in front my dual monitors. It isn't always easy, my eyes are still very sensitive to light, but I'm managing. I'm getting decent sleep, and on the days I don't, find it hard to battle with my eyes...I'll normally take a nap midday if I plan on getting on with the rest of my day.

As for running, I did take one week off (luckily I was already taking that as a down week), and I bounced back the next week, which is last week, with 5 runs and a total of 56km. I'm not feeling fast, I'm not entirely confident in my footing either (try running with one eye and see how that goes...), but I'm excited to be running and to have enough energy to crank out hour long runs on a daily basis.

I'm not yet running with the club yet, and I'm not doing any real workouts yet, but for now I'll just enjoy the easier running and take care of any little nags that come along with it.  By the end of October I'll be in peak form ready to unleash my fury on the trails and roads...it's a slow process so I won't rush it. Plus, there are tons more flies to drown in my sweat...
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