Posts Tagged With: happydays

#100happydays Day 88 The Need to Stretch

#100happydays   The Need to Stretch

I’m sitting on the floor stretching as I write this post. As runners, we have deal with the tight quads, caves and hamstrings.  Each step we take forces our quads, hamstrings, calves, hips and gluts to flex and extend over and over. All this repetitive motion can cause our muscles and tendons to tighten up becoming less flexible and more prone to injury.

Mornning stretches after our run

Morning stretches after our run

Ideally we should do dynamic stretches before we run like leg swings and walking lunges and static stretches after we run like hamstring and hip flexor stretches, calf and quad stretches and full body stretches. Dynamic stretches help to loosen up and activate all your leg muscles and static stretches help to maintain flexibility and range of motion.

There are lots of excellent articles on the web about stretching. Runners World is one that comes to mind as a good resource. We recommend the book Stretching by Bob and Jean Anderson. (see image)

Stretching by Bob and Jean Anderson

Stretching by Bob and Jean Anderson

I’d like to say we are diligent in our stretching, but we are not. Nagging injuries pop up every now and again to remind us of importance of stretching. As the saying goes “if you don’t have time to stretch, you don’t have time to run”.

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#100happydays Day 87 Sticky Sticks

#100happydays Day 87  Sticky Strips

We have had an ongoing fight with flying bugs this year, in particularly the very hearty deer flies that seem to be mutating into buzzing jet fighters with teeth (as I mentioned in my post of Nature’s Little Dive Bombers ).  There are some solutions on the web that we could try, they involve wearing blue beer cups on our heads. Hummmm?

We have found another solution. It still involves wearing a hat but we found this product called Sticky Sticks. They are made to use around houseplant with aphid infestations. Well those little strips are really sticky and they work on deer flies, the upholstery in my car, and Glenis’s hair. We just used safety pin to attach the little strips to the top on our hats voilà they worked like a charm! Happy Days!

Glenis is going to love these!

Glenis is going to love these! I just don’t know how she is going to handle running with bugs stuck to her hat!

Safer;s Sticky Sticks

Safer;s Sticky Sticks, we got ours in the garden center of WalMart.

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#100happydays day 86 A Long Run

#100happydays day 86 A Long Run

28k BOOM! Done! We had a great run today down our favorite road. We started our early and the weather was perfect! With hydration packs on, sunscreen and some nutrition in our packs we were ready for a great run.

This was a run with memories. We have been running Doane Road for years. We’ve done most of our marathon training on this road. It is a quiet, rolling county road, but not for long. A major highway is going in and splitting the road in two. The plan is to put a major intersection on it and turn it into a major four lane road. So while the road is still a quite county road, we are going to take advantage of it and enjoy every step.

We ran out Doane to Queensville, then out to Warden to Bill’s Turkey Farm. They must have been cleaning the barn because the odor of “turkey barn” drifted down the road with us until we turned around at the cow pasture.

An out and back 14k works for us, like trails the road can look entirely different once you’re on the other side. As usual we never know what we’ll find on a run we found this door set up as a garden prop on our way back home.

A door to another world!

A door to another world!

Ok, I got to say the best part was at the end of the run when we jumped in the pool to cool off!

Cool off time!

Cool off time!

 

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#100happydays Day 85 Friday is Yoga Day

#100happydays   Friday is Yoga Day

Fridays are going to be yoga day for the Blister Sisters during August. We are getting limber for the “Big Event”. There is one thing we really need to do more of is stretching and yoga is the perfect solution for us. Between the poses and the breathing we really need the benefits of yoga.

There are many types of yoga and I can’t really say that we do any particular one. We do enjoy a slower pace yoga where we can really hold the pose. (I found this great little image here.)

Yoga for Runners

Yoga for Runners

Runners and yoga just go together as explained in the Yoga Journal’s article by Baron Baptiste and Kathleen Finn Mendola.

“During the course of an average mile run, your foot will strike the ground 1,000 times. The force of impact on each foot is about three to four times your weight. It’s not surprising, then, to hear runners complain of bad backs and knees, tight hamstrings, and sore feet.

The pain most runners feel is not from the running in and of itself, but from imbalances that running causes and exacerbates. If you bring your body into balance through the practice of yoga, you can run long and hard for years to come. Although yoga and running lie on opposite ends of the exercise spectrum, the two need not be mutually exclusive. In fact, running and yoga make a good marriage of strength and flexibility.”

There are other good articles on line about yoga and running and don’t forget Pinterest. The best thing is to find a yoga studio that is geared for athletes.

One day I’ll post picture of us doing yoga, but we have to get a lot better at it before I do!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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#100happydays Day 84 Run for the Trails!

#100happydays Day 84 Run for the Trails!

We are always happy when we have a local event to promote. Run for the Trails is a local event that will be held on September 14th, 2014 at Scanlon Creek just outside of Bradford, Ontario. Put on by the Friends of Scanlon Creek, this race will showcase all the work the group has been doing the last few years to make Scanlon an excellent place to run. Proceeds of the Run For The Trails will support of the revitalization of the Scanlon Creek Conservation Area.

Run for the Trails

Run for the Trails

The run, as you might have guess, is all on trails. Scanlon offers wide swooping double tracks, some challenging single track trails as well as lots of great hills with a little bit of woodwork thrown in for fun. The day includes challenging 7 Km trail run/walk and a fun 1 Km trail run/walk for a maximum of 150 enthusiasts.

You can register on line here or I believe if the race isn’t full there will be race day registration starting at 8am. The race starts at 10am. Click here for more information.

 

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#100happydays Day 83 Hill Training

#100happydays Day 83 Hill Training

Hill Training Motivation from Get Out There Magazine

Hill Training Motivation from Get Out There Magazine

This morning was the first day of a weekly rotation of hill training. Only 4 hills today but over the next few weeks the number of repeats will increase as will the angle and length of hill.

Hill training is a necessary evil when training for a race. We often skip speed work to work on our strength (as well as improve our form) and hills do that.

Hills - Down and up.

Hills – Down and up. (The hill is actually a lot longer and steeper than it looks here. I’m just not too good at capturing it with my camera.)

There are lots of different ways to approach hill training. Check out these tips in Runners World.

The best way is just to do them.

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#100happydays Day 82 Cross training with a hula-hoop!

#100happydays Day 82 Cross training with a hula-hoop!

So the other day we were running through Walmart looking for bug spray when we passed a bin of hula-hoops, on sale no less.

Laughing we selected two of them. A couple of years ago we went to a Hula-hoop exercise class called Hulabics. What a hoot! Trying to get the ring to circle around us was one thing but then while ”hooping”, trying to walk & run, kick a ball, play catch and jump about. We cracked right up in the class. Apparently I do a great chicken walk while “hooping”. It was a good thing it was a small class.

It really is a lot of fun, the look on my face is just concentration to keep the hoop moving!

It really is a lot of fun, the look on my face is just concentration to keep the hoop moving!

It looks a little silly, an adult playing with a hula-hoop but the games we played as children actually will benefit us as adults. Hula-hooping has many benefits. It is aerobic, it builds core strength, flexibility and balance, stamina and concentration oh yea, and it’s fun, all of which we all can use more of.

We spent $4.00 on our hoops, probably the cheapest piece of exercise equipment we will ever own.

 

 

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#100happydays Day 81 The Monday Long Run

#100happydays Day 81 The Monday Long Run

It’s not often we get to run long on a Monday. We started out in the forest but the bugs drove us out onto the side roads. We ran in new territory today but sure enough we ran into another runner that we knew. I could tell by the way he ran that it was Bob.

Long run day and there are the Queen Ann's Lace, their fragrance is lovely.

Long run day and there are the Queen Ann’s Lace, their fragrance is lovely.

It was a hot run in the muggy sunshine so after the run it was into the pool and a nice holiday afternoon with friends. Hey Sister!

After the run - the pool!

After the run – the pool!

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#100happy days Day 80 Back to Basics

#100happy days Day 80 Back to Basics

This long weekend is proving to be a busy one for us. Yesterday was the Bad Ass Dash (which we are feeling the effects of today), today was the last day of the sale at Running Free and we both worked, (great to see all our running friends) and tomorrow is the first long run of an intensive schedule getting us ready for the next “big event”.

We are both really looking forward to this month’s training run. July was a busy one with races or volunteering every weekend. In August we are going to concentrate on our training and get some long slow runs in. I think we both miss running for hours on our back county roads. August is the time for Queen Ann’s Lace, daises and the dreaded deer flies and I think we miss all of them.

Road side wild flowers

Road side wild flowers

There is a little story about Queen Ann’s lace or Daucus carota– wild carrot. Queen Anne was tatting white lace.  (Tatting is the all-but-lost art of making lace by hand.)  The beautiful white lace she was tatting became the white lacy flowers of the wild carrot plant.  She pricked her finger and one drop of blood oozed out.  This became the central dark red or purple sterile floret that is present on some, but not all, Queen Anne’s Lace flowers. Now you know.

Queen Ann's Lace

Queen Ann’s Lace

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#100happydays Day 79 – The Bad Ass Dash Challenge!

#100happydays Day 79  The Bad Ass Dash Challenge!

Wow, what a hoot! We just finished the Bad Ass Dash at the Roc in Georgiana. I’ve had to add a new category to the blog – Obstacle Races – because this race had 37 obstacles and not one of them involved mud! The Warrior Dash was a walk in the park compared to the Bad Ass!

Bad Ass Girls!

Bad Ass Girls!

The overall distance was only 7k but half way through, after 20 obstacles that involved running, climbing, somersaults, climbing over transport trailers, pushing tires, running pump tracks, carrying sandbags, dodging heavy bags, walking balance beams and crawling under stuff, we were beginning to feel it. In the video you can see that the first bag I passed swung back and walloped me!

 

After balancing on floating dock supports (I think that’s what they were) we found ourselves running up and down the Roc’s ski hill about 4 times then wadding through a waist deep pond.

At one point Glenis ended up on her belly on the floating dock things. I just crawled across them, my knees are shot!

At one point Glenis ended up on her belly on the floating dock things. I just crawled across them, my knees are shot!

After that it was back up the ski hill. Part way up we had to crawl on our backs up a water soaked sheet of vinyl under a cargo net while two eager volunteers sprayed water on us with fire hoses. That had to be the toughest obstacle yet. I just wanted to lie on the ground to recover from the effort but no, we were off to the slip and slide, the inflatable over, under and through thing, the monkey bars, the tunnels in the sand and the over and under rain soaker.

#100 happydays - Sliding in to the finish! Too much fun!

#100happydays – Sliding in to the finish! Too much fun!

The last few obstacles gave us as another chance to climb over hay bales and some sort of cargo container and then it was up cargo netting and down the huge inflatable slide into a pool of water. I don’t even think I have listed all the stuff we did here. We both agreed that if we did all of this once a week we would be in great shape!

Along the way we ran into another Running Free Team athlete who was going to race the canine race with his beautiful dog. It was great to see a face that we knew at the event.

Gord

Gord

While all this was going on, Phil the photographer was there taking some great action shots. I’ll update this post when he post them to his site.

 

 

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