Punxsutawney Phil of Pennsylvania and Fred the groundhog in Val d’Espoir, Quebec, both saw their shadows this morning – so according to them, 6 more weeks it is.  Meanwhile, Shubenacadie Sam in Nova Scotia and Wiarton Willie in Ontario beg to differ – they’re both calling for an “early spring” which, as far as I can tell, means above seasonal temperatures and pleasant conditions.

We’ve already got our early spring in my neck of the woods; so early, in fact, it beat winter.  While I am not complaining, and I sure hope we don’t pay for it with a very tardy winter in April and May, we’ve only had a few wintery days here (like last Friday, for example).

What’s funny about it, though, is despite the frequent thaws that mean we can see a bit of grass poking through every week, despite the calm conditions, and despite the higher-than-normal rainfall for this time of year, I still have a bit of that winter mindset.  I won’t go so far as to say it’s the “blahs” because that’s not quite it – just that feeling like I want to sleep more and eat more and watch more TV.  I guess I really am solar powered – if it’s not the temperature or the snowfall that gets to me, it must be the lack of sunshine.  Either that or I was a bear in a past life – you know, because I like to eat myself stupid as it gets colder, then sleep for 3 months.

As much as I enjoy winter running, it’s a good thing I register for winter and spring races in the fall, because I can sure get lazy in the winter.  Anyone else?

Now, there are days when I am happy to run on the treadmill, but today felt like one of those days where a run would be a mental struggle no matter how I went about it.  I decided I would run outside, but to be safe I would need to stay in town so I settled on 5 laps around a 4K block.  I knew it would be harder to cheat, bail, or otherwise self-sabotage than if I was cozy in my basement – and really, it wasn’t cold out.  So in addition to my usual running attire, I threw on my Yak Trax and a pair of low-light sunglasses, and headed out the door.

The sidewalks really weren’t that slippery – it’s hard to slip in two inches of packing snow.  Thanks to the Yak Trax, the snow wasn’t building up in my treads; however, you can carry a significant amount of snow around in your Yak Trax. Don’t ask me how this works, I only know that it does – I felt like I had a brick in each shoe.

I was really glad I had those sunglasses – at least at first.  The snow was driving straight sideways in that way that is like getting a good sandblasting to the face.  But because it wasn’t cold, the heat radiating out of my jacket was fogging up my glasses, so I couldn’t see with them, and I couldn’t see without them. I left them on because the fog was preferable to the eyeball exfoliation.

Naturally, on lap one, I didn’t know where the icy patches or puddles were, thanks to the snow.  Luckily I never slipped, but I did positively soak my feet in a deep snow-covered lake puddle.

On the second lap, I noticed the snow was getting deeper.  In fact, I couldn’t see any trace of my tracks from the first lap.  My legs were starting to get sluggish thanks to trudging through the snow, and now, in addition to feeling like I had a brick in each shoe, I was also pretty sure there was a small person holding on to each foot .  I successfully avoided the puddles this time, but it was too late – my feet were so drenched that I could feel the water squish between my toes with every step.

By lap three, the snow was about 4 inches deep.  In the middle of that lap, even my Garmin gave up – the battery died.  As I approached the end of my street for the third time, I wondered why I thought it would be a good idea to follow a loop that went past the end of my street.  In order to convince myself to run past and not turn in, I told myself that if I did lap 4, I wouldn’t force myself to do lap 5.  Of course, this was just a mind trick – I am both a Jedi knight and a weak-minded Storm Trooper when it comes to tricking myself – I knew that when I finished lap 4 I would tell myself “it’s only one more lap.”

Sure enough, I trudged past my street a 4^th time.  For a few minutes I felt elated.  I believe my exact words were, “Woo hoo! I’ve done it! Last lap!”

The celebration was a little premature, however, because my legs felt like lead and my feet were downright numb.  I couldn’t help but laugh – probably a little bit maniacally – as I stopped at the same red light for the fifth time.  But when I was ¾ of the way through that lap, I knew I would make it, and I let myself walk up the big hill for the first time that day – after all, there had to be some reward for putting myself through this!

When I got home, I peeled off my socks, wrung them out, and looked at my toes – they looked like weird albino raisins.  I looked at the clock and realized my pace barely rivalled that of a snail, and yet my legs were thoroughly trashed.

So I took a long, hot shower.  Then I made a smoothie and a cup of coffee and sat down to work, relieved to be off my very tired feet.

For a brief moment I found myself thinking, “I love winter!”  At least until I heard the snow plough go by and looked at the ridge of giant snow and ice balls it had pushed into my driveway.  I won’t tell you what I found myself thinking after that.

If you aren’t familiar with Jeff Galloway, he went to the 1972 Olympics with Team USA for the 10,000m, wrote a whole pile of books, and invented the Galloway Run-Walk-Run™ method.  According to this method, you take walk breaks at prescribed ratios, the theory being that you can run faster for longer with less fatigue – and recover faster with lower injury rates – by using different muscles.

I should state that I don’t intend this post to be a debate about walk breaks.  I take walk breaks on some runs and in some races, and quite frankly, I know plenty of faster runners than me who take walk breaks more often than I do. Generally speaking, I don’t care how people run, I am always just thrilled that they do.

But as I ran along with Galloway and the rest of the group, listening to his stories and hearing him answer questions, the same thought kept creeping into my head.  So finally, I asked him: what does he say to those people who say, “you aren’t a ‘real runner’ if you take walk breaks,” because surely, as an advocate of the concept, he must encounter them fairly regularly.

With his thick Southern drawl, he said, “Yes, I do encounter those people. For those people who believe there is only one way to do something, their way, I have two words.  They are narcissistic bigots.”  I was caught off guard and I must have shown it, because he went on with, “No, it’s true! Anyone who believes that the only way you can do something is their way really are narcissistic bigots!”

He went on to say (remember to read it with the drawl!):

When I encounter these people, I say, that’s interesting! I have been a runner my whole life.  I’m a coach, I’ve been a race director, and I have been to the Olympics – and I had no idea there was a rule book!  But if you would like to show me the book, and show me where it says that taking walk breaks is not allowed, I would be happy to concede.

When I got home I looked up the actual definitions of narcissistic and bigot, and sure enough, the term really fits – even if it seems harsh on first hearing.  It’s not actually harsh, so much as blunter than most polite runners are comfortable with.

But then again, we’re not really talking about polite runners here, are we?

I had this whole giant thing written about New Year’s Resolutions, but it just went off in way too many directions for one post.  So I will stick with this instead: any time you set a goal for yourself, cut yourself some slack. Remember that it takes time to build or break a habit.  If you’ve slipped up, don’t use that as an excuse to give up.

If you’re trying to eat better, remember that every bite is a chance to make a healthier choice.

If you’re trying to establish a new workout routine, every day is an opportunity for a do-over.

Whatever it is, it’s not black-and-white, just give it another shot.  There’s no pass or fail – only where you were, where you are now, and where you’re headed.

So, how are those New Year’s resolutions coming?

As for how it went – well, I have to say it went remarkably well.  I started out the month rather ambitiously, of course, and got tuckered out quickly, but as soon as I found my rhythm, it was fine.   Looking back at it now, it feels like it was no big deal.

Before answering the second question, I should preface by saying, if you don’t already know, I am a running addict; accountability is not an issue for me and I rarely look for excuses to get out of running.  The other thing you should know is that I am not a very competitive person – of course I compare myself to others, but I don’t draw motivation from the thought of pitting myself against others.

As for how I like being on a running streak, I have to say I have mixed feelings about it.  Sure, it is pretty cool to look at my training log for December and see something in every single box.  It’s neat to be able to say that, including November 29 and 30, I ran on 33 consecutive days – the most days I have ever gone without skipping a day.

However, there are some drawbacks, too.  First of all, I can see how easy it would be to force yourself to run when you really shouldn’t.  After all, it’s only a mile, right?  I was fortunate during my streak that I didn’t have any issues such as nagging pain, fever, or other factors that one should not run through.  But the folks who run every single day for years on end, while they have my admiration, could be taking some unnecessary (in my mind) risks.  If you are running through a pain that would heal with a couple of days rest, you could cause an injury and sideline yourself for weeks or months; if you run with a fever you can cause a great amount of strain on your heart that could, again, result in time off for treatment – or worse, a heart attack.  In those cases, is it really worth it? I am sure there are some people out there who are motivated by the thought of not breaking their streak who might think so.

Secondly, and this one did affect me personally – when I felt I needed to run every day, the run could become a chore rather than a joy.  Like cleaning out the coffee grinder that is built into my coffeemaker – and yes, it has to be done after every use – it’s worth it in order to have fresh ground coffee every day, but it’s not like I have ever said, “Boy am I looking forward to cleaning the coffee grinder!”  Even when you aren’t trying for a streak, it is normal to have the odd day where you groan at the thought of getting out of a warm bed and hitting the streets.  It is also normal to go to bed before a rest day and be able to say with a happy sigh, “Ahh, I get to sleep in tomorrow.”  And maybe just knowing that I get to do that once or twice a week is part of what keeps me saying “Boy, am I looking forward to my run!” the vast majority of the time.  So when I found myself groaning several days in a row, I knew my streak would not continue into the New Year.

I hope I am not sounding too negative here. I guess what I am saying is that I had fun, and would do it again as a short term challenge – it was especially helpful in keeping my feet on the ground during the crazy holiday season.  I just can’t see it becoming a way of life for me.

How about you? What’s your longest streak, and do you get joy and motivation from being able to write about a run in every single space in your calendar?

But I digress. I know that some of you have had a tough year and are happy to see the end of it – I’m happy to cheer in a new beginning with you. However, I am one of the fortunate ones to be able to say that 2011 was a fantastic year for me, so I would be remiss in not tipping my hat to the outgoing year.

When it comes to running, my overall mileage wasn’t as high as last year. However, I learned a lot. I got faster and more courageous, I raced smarter, and stayed injury-free. I visited places I have never been and talked to all sorts of interesting people. To each and every one of you who had any part in it, no matter how small it may seem to you, I say thank you – I couldn’t have done it without you.

And to absolutely everyone, a Happy New Year! I wish you PBs and medals and t-shirts galore. May your miles be merry and plentiful. The world is at your feet – go run it!

However, sometimes you get a Christmas miracle.  In this case, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law with their young son were in town the weekend before Christmas, which meant two of the four visits took place ahead of time, effectively clearing a chunk of time on Boxing Day (thank you Brian, Dana and Kaiden!).

What’s the big deal about the Boxing Day 10-Miler? Aside from the fact that it’s Saint Ralph’s first road race, I’ve had it on my to-do list for a while – it’s an historic race, with 2011 being its 91^st running – and they give away a pretty cool snowman medal.  And really, what better way to keep your eating in check on Christmas Day than to imagine the pain of running 10 miles the next day on too much turkey and pie?

Even after the decision was made, the stars continued to align in my favour. The day dawned cloudy and cool – nothing to complain about! – but before the noon start, the sky had cleared and temperatures had warmed to a balmy +2 degrees Celsius.  Before the race, we got to hang out in the gym of the Hamilton YMCA, so if the weather had been less than delightful, you didn’t have to worry about starting out cold.

The course was beautiful – it started out through the streets of Hamilton before heading down to the shores of Lake Ontario.  Along the lakefront paths we were dodging goose poop as the geese quietly muttered their discontent at having to stand in the grass and watch the monstrous parade thunder by.  The course felt largely downhill for the first half, which was nice, until you reached mile 7 where it seemed like we gained back the entire elevation loss in one…let’s see, how to describe it…significant hill.  Okay, it was big – maybe the front of the pack ran up it, but by the time my crowd reached it, no one ran all the way up (the kind of hill we runners look at and think, if this wasn’t mile 7, would I be able to run up it?).  The good news is, after that it was mostly downhill again for the final 3 miles.

We finished the race to a lukewarm bowl of soup – and that is not a complaint! It was just the right temperature that I could drink it straight out of the bowl and not fuss with spoons or worry about burning my tongue.   There was also a spread of rolls, fruit and squares (I went with a Nanaimo bar), and some Clif bars as well.  The best part was, I was able to avoid my two signature post race events: because it wasn’t super-crowded around the finish, I did not have to stop short in a mob of people and experience a  drop in blood pressure that leaves me lightheaded for 2 hours, and with being able to drink the soup right back, I didn’t have a monster-blood sugar crash.  Yes, it’s true, I ran a hard race and felt great afterwards!

Overall I have to say it doesn’t get much better than that. While I did avoid going crazy on the food on Christmas, I would be lying if I said I didn’t indulge – and I can happily say that didn’t come back to haunt me.  In addition, I hadn’t done any hard training since my November half marathon, so despite being an automatic personal best (it was my first 10-mile race, you see), I ran a really respectable time for me.  Sadly, I did have to miss the post race party at Slainte Irish Pub in order to make another family commitment, but hey, it is Christmas!

Thank you to race director James Van Dyke and the whole Boxing Day 10-Miler crew – I had a wonderful day and would recommend this race to anyone!

When I started my warm up, my legs felt dead. Absolutely and utterly dead, like someone had poured them full of concrete and they were starting to set.  It’s no surprise since I did a tempo run yesterday, however, it was the sort of feeling you get when you know you should take a rest day. I slogged through a very slow warm up trying not to think about what that meant for my first hill.  But I figured, I needed to get my streaking in anyway, and if it really sucked after that, I could allow myself, just this once, to stop.

Well after my warm up, I set my watch to 2 minute intervals and popped the incline up to 6% – I figured I couldn’t handle anything more than that with the way I was feeling.  Well I made it through the 2 minutes, and as I took my 2 minute recovery at 0%, my legs suddenly felt lighter.  So I made it through all of my hill repeats.  Then I made it through another half hour at a much faster pace.

It was pretty interesting – it’s like I just couldn’t get out of first gear, but once I did, look out!  I have had that experience in races and other outdoor runs – when you just feel like you can’t go on, throwing in a couple of surges can really wake your legs back up.  I had never experienced that on the treadmill before, though.  I am sure there’s some scientific explanation but I don’t really know what – I would hazard a guess that it could be anything from increasing the blood flow (in the case of it happening early in a run) to changing up the impact forces and muscles being used (in the case of it happening late in a run).  Anyone out there know?

Bob arranged a live satellite uplink to the base so that the couple could chat on the video wall at the start; he also had them linked by GPS so they could pace together.  As the story goes, the Major finished about 30 seconds ahead of his wife, and got to speak with her again via video and satellite at the finish.

We all got a little dewy over it, and when we were back with Bob, we asked him about it.  He told us that’s the thing he loves about working at Disney – that they love hearing ideas, even if they’re for things that don’t benefit the company directly. When he heard about the couple, he went to his boss and said, “Listen, I have this idea. It’s not going to contribute to the bottom line in any way, but it’s a nice thing to do.”  And just like that, Bob’s boss said, “Great! Make it happen.”

I just wanted to share that story because it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. While I realize that chatting with representatives of the media about these sorts of things informally is as much a part of the PR machine as avoiding bragging about them in the first place, it is also a glimpse at the other side – the human side – of what makes a corporation tick. All of the runDisney people I met, chatted with, formally interviewed, and heard speak at events – from the interns to the director – are really nice people.  And of course they are – you couldn’t call it the “happiest place on earth” without nice people – but more importantly, hey, they’re runners!

For those of you not familiar with a running streak, it does not actually involve streaking.  A streak means that for a period of time, whether predetermined at the outset or decided when you finally break it, you run every day. For it to count as a run, you do have to cover a minimum distance (usually a mile) but the sky is the limit – you can run as far as you want.  No, you can’t “stockpile” or “carry over” the extras on the days you run farther – you have to run every day.

So for the Strides Holiday Running Streak, I have committed to run a minimum of 1 mile a day (with clothes on! Well, that’s more a matter of personal preference rather than an actual part of the streak), every day in December, and then post about it on their facebook event page.

With it being the crazy season I can see how it is going to take some planning to make sure it happens every day and doesn’t slip through the cracks.  Fortunately I do have a treadmill, so in a pinch I could bang out 1600m in my basement, even if I have no more than 10 minutes and no clean tights.  But here’s where the planning becomes important: on Saturday, for example, I will have to be sure to get it done first thing in the morning in case I don’t make it home before midnight (because I am such a party animal).

Overall, though, I think it will be a great way to make sure I squeeze in a few minutes for me every day – even if it is only the few minutes.   I am off to a great start, with 11km for Day 1.

At last check, there were 177 people signed up – why don’t you jump in?