A Healthier Version of ME and YOU

Sunday, June 16, 2013

A Father’s Day Tribute to my Dad

It’s been over a week since my last blog post and much has happened in that short time.

Last Thursday June 13, 2013 my father suffered a heart attack while at home and then another one in the hospital shortly after arrival. There was nothing anyone could do for him and he was gone. I got a call from my brother-in-law at 3pm while I was picking the kids up at the school bus stop. Not the best place to be to receive a call like this. But where is???? The call was about the first attack and he was on his way to the hospital. I phoned my husband and he was leaving work right away. I had to contact all the parents of the daycare children. Thank you to all of them for picking their children up early that day. As we were on our way to the hospital in Guelph, my brother-in-law called again and asked us to meet. This time there was no good news.

I know that may sound abrupt and short, but I don’t know any other way of saying it without getting too emotional and then you would not know anything because I wouldn't be able to type.

We made our way to the hospital and it was very surreal. I saw my father lying there and it just wasn't right. The saddest part of it all was just leaving him there in that room. I knew for my children's sake and for my own, we could not stay there all night. There was nothing we could do. And THAT did not seem right. But we had to go and that made me sad. I did work the next day to keep my brain busy with the kids, but that night I had the crappiest sleep ever. I knew though that I had to get some rest because I still have my own two children that need me to keep going.

Plus...

Last time I wrote to you I told you about me signing up for the 5K run of The Waterloo 10KM Classic. Well today was the day, and I ran it in honor of my Dad.

I woke up to the sound of rain outside and this Wimpy-Weather-Runner thought… “GREAT!”

But since I started the 21K training program, the weather has been mostly crappy for my runs, so I am not really Wimpy-Weather-Runner anymore. Yes I will still probably cringe at the thought of going out in crappy weather and need a little extra motivation, but once I’m there, I’m good to go. For today’s race in the rain, my Dad was all the motivation I needed.

Before leaving the house this morning, I copied a picture of my Dad and laminated it and pinned it to my hat. He was with me the entire way, from start to finish and beyond.

In addition to being a wimp due to crappy weather, I am also a BIG sap, but for those of you that are avid readers, you already know that. I get all sappy when it comes to races (not that anyone can see these out on the course) (well, at least I don’t think they can). Today was no exception, of course.

As the race began and all the runners and I started on our way, I started to get choked up and I had to pull myself together if I wanted to finish strong. I got it together and recorded a personal best for my 5K. I had my Nike+ Running app going on my iPhone so that I could track and record my distance and time. According to my app, my time was 28 minutes 25 seconds for the 5K, but my official time for the race was 29 minutes 39 seconds. I am very proud of both times. The race was actually a bit longer than 5KM. My Nike+ Running app recorded the distance to be 5.29KM, but who is really keeping track. I AM! My run today according to my 21K training schedule was to be 30 minutes, so I joked with my husband that I had to run 1 or 2 minutes more.

This was at the starting line before the race.

My husband and the kids are up in the stands somewhere.

I'm in there!!!

In the second picture I'm directly under the letter R in START. I'm wearing a black hat. In front of the guy in the orange shirt. Do you see me??? Near the person taking the picture on the far side.

Getting back to the sap that I am, there were a couple other moments out on the course where I felt tears welling up in my eyes. Along with the app running, I had a playlist of songs playing with a couple of them my Dad’s songs. I was kind of hoping they would come on when I was finishing the race, but they didn’t. They both played after I passed the 5K turned around point. It was a great feeling that I was heading into the home stretch. Even with the songs playing, I held it together and finished strong. If you are wondering which songs were on my playlist…The Twist by Chubby Checker and What a Wonderful World. You should have seen my Dad dance to The Twist, oh yeah; he knew how to Twist It!!! A thought came to me tonight…it would have been so great if at the end of the race, I could have got them to play that song over the sound system, and then everybody start doing The Twist, in the rain of course. Oh well, a fun thought, but a little late.

Here I am crossing the finish line.

With a personal best too!

Here is me and my Dad.

Post race.

My son loving the rain.

Today’s race was for my Dad. Next Saturday I have another 5K race that I have been looking forward to for a long time. My sister and I will be doing that one together and I think that one will be for my Dad too. Color Me Rad Toronto Saturday June 22, 2013.

The last few days have been long. I feel like I need to keep on keeping on for my children. Everyone grieves differently and it will hit us all at different times in our lives, remember the love and the strength that the person you lost has showed you, and pass it on to the ones you love. Teach them to be strong and passionate about life and your lost loved ones will shine through in the people around you.

It’s like how my daughter likes to be in the garden. I got that from my Dad (and my Mum), and she gets it from me. It’s just like with the running…she sees me run and now she is into running. I have registered her for her first 1KM fun run coming up here in Waterloo, ON…Saturday August 24, 2013…In Running Colour…put on by the Waterloo Running Series. Check out the website for more details - www.waterloorunningseries.com

After seeing the race today, my son wants to do a race too. He is geared up for the Dirty Dash on July 14^th in Waterloo, ON. I still need to register us for that one.

On Thursday of last week, I noticed some pictures on Instagram of some friends Peonies that had bloomed in their gardens. I looked at mine and they were still not in bloom yet. One of the white ones was just starting to open. You might be wondering why I am telling you all this, well I do have a point and I will get to it. The next day, that single white peony opened up.

I told my daughter that it was because of Grandpa. My Dad was a gardener, and loved planting, growing and selling vegetables at the market and later on bedding plants. He was always a busy man. Even at the end, he had been outside enjoying the day sitting on the deck looking over what once was the garden he so carefully looked after many years ago. His green thumb has been passed on to my own little girl and she told him just last Tuesday evening that she loved planting things. We went for a visit and she told him all about the garden that she planted here at our home. He was pretty thrilled to hear that. With the tragic event that happened only two days later, I was happy that my children were able to spend that time with my Dad, their Grandpa and sharing their gardening stories. It was a great visit, but I didn’t think it would be our last one with him. He has been in and out of the hospital a lot this year and when he was in the hospital, he did not look good. When we were there last Tuesday, he looked good, even despite a nasty fall he had taken that Sunday before. Whether that had something to do with the heart attack that occurred on Thursday, we will never know. We just have to remember all the good times we shared with him.

Okay, I will get back to the peony part of the story. Yesterday, Saturday, we stopped in to see my Mum and she was telling us about the flowers that she had ordered for the funeral. My Dad wanted peonies. I almost fell off my chair when she told me this. She said that my Dad had said (I guess when they were making funeral arrangements a few years ago) that he wanted peonies at his grave. It’s almost like he knew. The peonies are in full bloom now. So my Mum, my sister and my Aunt with the help of some other friends, have gathered together some beautiful peonies to supply to the florist to create an arrangement for Tuesday. I will also be taking some of my white peonies in honor of my Dad’s wishes. I never knew that my Dad loved these flowers so much. That is probably why I love them so much too. They are so beautiful.

I don’t know when I will get back to writing again. I am going to get through these next few days and see how I feel. I am going to try and stick with my training because I know my Dad would not want me to give up. Even if I have to switch up my days a little, I will not give up. I kind of want my long runs to end up on Saturdays, so I may just take an extra rest day this week.

I would like to thank everyone who have sent messages with condolences to me and my family, it means so much to us all. Many ask if there "is anything they can do?"... Take care of yourself, that is what you can do. Start your own journey to become A Healthier Version of YOUrself. Start now, don't wait for tomorrow. Tomorrow never comes. Start today...NOW...take up my Just Push It! Challenge. Do some push ups, even if it's just one or two. Do it! I'm up to 22 regular push ups. TODAY!!!

I am going to resume my strength training as well this week. I am feeling rather soft and I don’t like it. My belly feels like jelly and my butt has gone soft. Not good. I want to Stay Strong for myself and for my family. Because of the health issues throughout my family history, I wanted to be sure that I stay on track with my journey to be A Healthier Version of Me, and I want my husband and our children to be the best they can be too.

I will be back again soon.

Until then…Stay Strong!

Trina

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Run Phatsoslim, RUN!

I began writing this post on Friday but did not finish it because my family and I went to the Drive in movies again. So the first part of this post happened on Thursday and the remainder took place Saturday.

So here we go...

Last night(Thursday) this Wimpy-Weather-Runner was tested with low temperatures, rain, wind and a 60 minute run.

As I stood on my front porch I took the time to snap this picture…

And the whole time I was thinking of all the reasons WHY I should not do this run and stay at home where it was warm and dry. But good news…those reasons were crushed by the one that pulled my out of the house in the first place. I had something to prove to myself AND I put this out there yesterday morning on Instagram…

So this was going to hold me accountable for my actions later in the day. Yes I thought I still could have wimped out, but then how could I call myself a motivator and inspiration to my children and YOU. As I was getting ready to go out the door, my little girl put a sweater on and her running shoes and she wanted to come with me. I LOVE IT! But that wasn’t going to happen. I asked her if she could run non stop for an hour without whining or crying. Then I thought to myself, “Could I?” I told her that we would go out another day when the weather is nicer, and not for so long. I love her spirit. If she was willing to run in the crappy cool rainy weather, I had to. And that is what I did.

It wasn’t that bad once I got going. The rain had let up a little after I started out, and the wind was not really that strong either. Yes it was chilly to start out but once I was on the road and the blood was pumping, my body temperature rose and I was comfortable.

This was my after shot...

So getting back to the present…

When I last wrote to you, I mentioned that my new goal was to run my first 10KM race this year. Well since then, I downloaded a 21KM training app onto my iPhone and decided to start the training for a Half Marathon…that’s right…I said it, but I will say it again…a HALF MARATHON. EEK!!!!!!!!

So that is why that run I did the other night was SO very important to me. I know that I will get hit with some other crappy weather, but at least I made it through my first challenge. For all the runners out there…What has been the crappiest weather that YOU have run in and for how long (distance/time)?

So with my new goal put out to you…

Today’s run was to be 30 minutes. The weather…sun and cloud with higher temperatures…no problem.

Before I went out for my run though, I drove to Runner’s Choice here in Waterloo, ON and signed up for The Waterloo 10KM Classic. Don’t get too excited for me for doing my first 10K race, I’m not just yet. The race is on Sunday June 16^th at 9am and that day is to be a Rest Day for me in my 21KM training program.

So with the help of the two wonderful gentlemen at the registration, I decided to switch my Saturday run onto the Sunday and do the 5KM. I am looking forward to this race. And then the following Saturday, I have another 5K, with the Color Me Rad 5K run in Toronto, ON. Yay!!!!!

With signing up for the race, I got my choice of a Saucony water bottle or a pair of Saucony socks (shown in the picture above). I went for the socks. Just recently I have realized how important it is to wear good socks for running. I had bought myself a pair of Under Armour training socks a few weeks ago, (which I showed to you in my last blog post) and they are wonderful, so hopefully these Saucony ones will be just as good. I will try them for my next run on Monday.

After returning home from my registration journey, I strapped on my Suunto Heart Rate Monitor and hit the trail. I hit the path to the right and tackled the hills that waited for me. The trails have hills everywhere, some big, some small, but the path to the right has some real crazy ones. I didn’t cover as much distance in the 30 minutes today, but I know that it because of the terrain. I will run this same trail again and better my time. I WILL.

After returning home from my 30 minute journey on the trails, my daughter was getting ready to go out for “her” run. She wanted to go out with me again for the 30 minutes, but I told her that it would be too long for her. So once she changed her clothes and put on some running shoes instead of flip flops, she was ready to go. Together we made up a playlist to run to and we were ready. We stopped on the porch to snap a before picture...

We were off…as I started with a slower steady jog…she started to sprint, followed by some leaps, skips and jumps. LOL She wanted to walk then but I didn’t let her stop yet. We were only about a minute or two into it. LOL As we went along the smile that you see in that above picture started to fade and was replaced by some whining and a frown. Instead of stopping, I told her to slow down, she did and we made it through to reach our goal of 1.2KM. She was glad when we were done running and we were walking, but then she began running again. Crazy little girl!

Here is our after picture…

The smile did return shortly after.

And I’m glad it did.

We will keep running together to build our distance and better our time and maybe soon she too will be running her own 5KM race. I’m so proud of her.

Well that’s enough of my babble for tonight. Tomorrow is a rest day, but you know what that means…cleaning, gardening, grocery shopping and more cleaning. Not much of a rest day.

Stay Strong!

Trina

Inspire your children to be healthy...

It feels great!

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Rest, Recharge and Reset

Over the past week I have taken a break from my hardcore workouts of TapouT XT. I have not quit, because I know that "To quit, does not exist!" I was not feeling it and I was not getting the results I wanted or what I was expecting. That was not due to the workout itself, but rather of me not FEELING IT. On Monday, it was my 2 year Fitaversary. It was two years ago that I started on my journey to A Healthier Version of ME. Since then I have been going pretty hard and I think my body was telling me to slow down (just a bit), so I listened. That is probably why I felt so run down last Fall and throughout the Winter. At least that is what I am telling myself. When I was teaching my spin classes, I used to tell my class..."If I'm telling you to GO, GO, GO and your body is saying NO, NO, NO...listen to your body". Well it was about time I listened to MY body. With the combination of TapouT XT and the last couple months of Squat Challenges and this month's Just Plank It! Challenge, my body started to shout NO, NO, NO! I did not stop all together because that would be silly...right?!?! RIGHT! I have kept up with my planks, well at least doing them, but not hitting the goal times set out for the month, but that's okay, at least I am doing them. We are to hit 8 minutes by the 31st. Let me know how YOU are doing with the Just Plank It! Challenge. Any 8 minuters out there???? Let us all know.

In addition to the planking, I have been gardening (finally), running and biking while camping on the long weekend. I bought myself a new mountain bike. I have been on a spin bike for so long, I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to ride a real bike. LOL. On Friday May 17th, I had a unexpected day off of work (YAY!), so...I decided to run, that's right RUN to the store and buy myself a new bicycle. So I ran there and rode back. Here is my new ride...

I was a little bit shaky at first but then I got the hang of it again.

Now getting to the running...

While we were camping on the Victoria Day long weekend, I got out for a nice 5K run through the trails that were around the conservation area.

This is my favourite part of this trail. The path is lined by tall trees on both sides, it's lovely and so very peaceful. It's beautiful!

Later that same day, my family and I hiked the same path down to the beach where my children enjoyed the sand and the sun. Me...I was a bit chilly, but I enjoyed watching them have a great time.

I have been out for a couple more runs and the one I want to tell you most about is the one from last night.

First of all I should tell you about the new goal I have set for myself. I was perusing through Instagram one day last week and I noticed something on the Under Amour for Women page, a contest...What is Beautiful? Set a goal, log it, blog it, vlog it...let everyone know about your goal and what you are doing to reach and demolish that goal. So as I said I have set a new goal for myself...it is to run my first 10K race this year.

I have yet to decide on which race I will run but I will post it on my Events with Me page when I register for it.

Last night's run was just going to be a short one since I started out late, but it ended up being just over an hour long. I started off running with just me and the snails on the sidewalk, and then it was just me. Instead of turning right to head back home, I turned left and ran around the far side of a new subdivision they are building nearby. On my iPhone I have the Nike+ Running app, and that is what I have been using lately to track my progress. Well last night as I was running I snapped a few pictures and I forgot to resume the workout through the app after taking the pictures. The pictures were taken at the 2.85 mile mark, the music kept playing, but it had stopped tracking my distance and GPS. My mistake. Next time I will know to hit resume after snapping my proof pictures.

The pictures are blurry because I did not stop running while snapping these shots.

Anyway, I kept on running and running and running. As I got closer to my home, I thought that I would run to the bottom of our street and then walk back up the hill to cool down. That didn't happen. At the lights, the walk signal flashed at me and I kept going across the road. Then I thought I would turn around at the first side street and head back home. That didn't happen either. Then I decided that I would run to the end of the street I was on, turn around and run back home. That DID happen! Once I got back across the lights, it was all up hill back to my home...I KILLED it!!! I felt unstoppable! I guesstimate my total distance at about 9km. AWESOME!!!!! I felt great!!!

I felt great last night, but when I woke up this morning my knees were a little sore so I decided to do some yoga as my morning workout. I felt great once again.

My new goal...I am going to demolish it!!! Maybe my next goal will be a half marathon. Could this wimpy-weather-runner stick with the training for a half???? We shall see.

I am so looking forward to the Color Me Rad 5K run coming up on Saturday June 22, 2013 in Toronto, ON.

A few weeks back I bought myself some trail running shoes...Salomon XT Wings 3...I love them. Last week I bought myself some Under Armour socks...they are AWESOME!!!!

It's what's on the inside that makes things happen.

And this is WHAT happened...

I wore them the other day and my feet were so comfortable, it felt like I was running on a pillow-like ground. Yes I know that may sound silly, but these socks were so cozy. With the combination of the Under Armour socks and the Salomon XT Wings 3, the trail run was a breeze. Loving the running lately.