Your Inner Coach

Several months ago I launched my www.bouncestrong.com website which included a run coaching component.  Since then I have struggled to define what I can offer as a coach, and a description was to why one would benefit from hiring a running coach.  I know why I value a coach, and I know what I hope to offer as a coach, but I couldn't really define what a coach can do for you until today.  And it didn't come from me.

Today I receive this email from one of my coaching clients.  I have been coaching him for just under 2 months.  These are his words.  They humble me and make me want to do the happy dance all at the same time!

"Feeling stiff from my first “real” hill workout two days ago, I let out an "old man groan" as I eased my 42 year old frame into my desk chair. I wanted to take one last look at week 7 of my training plan. This was going to be brutal! The plan called for intervals. The memory of last week’s near-puking effort was haunting.


"I set the treadmill (you can’t cheat on a treadmill) to 7 mph for a 10 minute warmup and tried to relax. My legs burned. Not good! All too soon, 10 minutes flashed on the display and I punched in 10.1 mph for my first 5 minute interval. Almost instantly I felt a cramp in my right hamstring. It worked itself out but I stressed over keeping this up. My legs were churning as fast as they could go and I was already feeling exhaustion setting in. I thought back to a recent relay race and pictured the high schoolers running effortlessly as they passed me. Their legs were fast but not faster than mine. I remember marvelling at how their feet barely kissed the ground, as if they were flying. But HOW? What was I missing?

"Then it hit me - upside the head like Al Capone with a baseball bat. It had been staring me in the face for two months since hiring Kim. It was front and center on her webpage and in the signature of every email. BOUNCE STRONG! If my legs couldn’t swing faster, I would have to go farther with each stride. I needed to engage those muscles I’d been punishing for the last two months. I needed to bounce stronger! I intentionally relaxed my cadence a bit and focused on pushing harder, engaging my calves, quads, glutes and any other muscles willing to join in. Almost instantly I felt a hint of relaxation. It didn’t get easy but at least it felt possible.

"I bounced, and it became my mantra for the rest of the workout. My legs burned, my eyes stung with sweat, my lungs choked in every last molecule of oxygen, but I focused on bouncing strong. Finally, as I mashed the number 7 for my cool down, that familiar but elusive feeling washed over me... the runner’s high! On tired legs I had achieved one more seemingly impossible goal and I felt absolutely amazing!

"Two months ago when I hired Kim I told her one of my goals for the year was to achieve a sub 20 minute 5k. Within my interval workout today was a 5k time of 19 minutes, 20 seconds and a 10k time of 39 minutes, 54 seconds. That’s TWO 20 minute 5k runs back to back in the same workout! Talk about crushing a goal!

"People often wonder, “at what point do you call yourself a runner”. I’ve been running for 4 years, but I’ll always remember today - on the treadmill no less - as the day I became a runner. I found that one crucial piece of the puzzle. Today I bounced strong and I couldn’t have done it without my amazing coach, Kim."

Sometimes a coach feeds you gruelling workouts.  Sometime a coach asks you to do things that are hard, and sometimes a coach sends you inspirational mantras and Friday night videos while telling you to rest.  Often a coach can simply be the loudest voice in your head - that doesn’t let you stop, that doesn’t take excuses, that gives you permission to exhibit the greatness that exists within yourself, the awesomeness that you are afraid to show.

A coach can be someone you hire, or it can simply be the best friend that you run with every weekend.  It can be that elite runner you follow on social media or it can be that terminally ill relative that just keeps going despite the odds, who puts things into perspective.  

This weekend as you run, let the voice of all your coaches lift you up, get your feet moving, and help you to believe that all things are possible if you work hard and believe in yourself. 

Because they are.

BOUNCE STRONG MY FRIENDS

My Tribe

Today I finished my peak week for Zion 100 after coming back from a stress fracture last fall.  In 12 short weeks I went from doing run:walk combos to running 50-60 mile weeks, successfully I might add! I'll be going into Zion definitely under-trained, but healthy and mentally fit, which is minimum standard for me.

After a long winter of frigidly cold weather alternating with spring-like temps above zero, I am done with mother nature's flirtation and very ready for spring.  So when we had freezing rain last week that turned the city in sheets of ice on EVERY surface, my training partner and I made a last minute decision to head south to North Dakota for a 50K race as a way to get our last 30 mile training run in before Zion on real dirt.

Which brings me to the point of this piece.  For a variety of reasons I ran the vast majority of my miles this winter alone: my need to do my own thing with regards to my injury, family commitments, need for quiet time alone. An ultra runner often cherishes the alone time, craves it, gets used to spending hours and hours with only their thoughts and their iPod for company.  Ultra running is a very solitary sport for most of us.

But there is also a very unique, tightly knit ultra running community.  It does not respect geographical, topographical or cultural boundaries.  I have formed bonds with runners whom I met at a races only once in another country (thanks to FB), as well as runners whom I regularly run with. Some I go way back with, some I've just met.

Sarah and I running Mt. Albert Edward in a day (2006)

After our 50K race in North Dakota, several Manitoban runners met at a local pizza place in Fargo for supper before heading our respective ways.  The group included runners of all different ages, professions, experience levels. There was talk of big races coming up, but also talk of crewing for those races, flying or driving across the country to support friends and family in their journey across that line.

As I sat at the table in Fargo eating pizza and listening to the conversation around me, there was genuine excitement.  Excitement expressed from the runners who were planning their races, excitement from the crew members who were going assist them in that process or who had been a part of it in the past.  The excitement was shared on all sides and it was genuine.

As we drove home the circle widened.  I was getting texts from my friend Sarah in BC who will be racing the Zion 50K and Isabelle who will be crewing for me.  Scott was wondering how we did and checking in to make sure we were travelling safely. My husband was checking in to make sure all was well and letting me know everything was good on the home front.

Sarah & I at the summit of Kings Peak (2006)

Scott, Myself, Todd - Fat Dog 2016

It struck me how we all have our individual goals, but so many people support us in achieving them.  We spend hours upon hours running and training solo.  We dream, plan, strategize ways to reach our goals and achieve our dreams.  We devise these plans in solitude, but they quickly morph into logistical nightmares that involve many others who support us.  We recruit some, some volunteer, some are "voluntold" (usually spouses lol).  Ultra runners know that to run seriously long distances, for most people takes a team.  The vast majority of us are not professional athletes. We rely on our family, friends and our fellow runners to sacrifice their time, funds and physical energy to hold down the home front, crew and pace for us as we strive to achieve our impossible.

Isabelle and I - Nootka Trail 2005

I will be heading to Utah in less than 3 weeks to run my first 100 accompanied by my long time coach and running mentor Sarah.  I will also have Todd and Isabelle coming as pacer and crew with the sole purpose of assisting me in achieving my goal. Wow. My husband will be holding down the fort at home with our 2 kids, who simply cannot comprehend what mommy is set out to do (and frankly neither can their mom).

Sarah and I at my first 50K race: Sun Mountain, Winthrop, WA (2013)

It BLOWS MY MIND and humbles me when I stop to consider what others are doing to help me achieve my goals.  I am so honoured to be a part of this incredible community of ultra runners and friends who just get it.  Who know what needs to be done and step up to do it.  I am grateful for a husband who supports my need to run even though he may not always understand, and kids who don't blink when mommy says she's going out for a "short run" of 1 1/2 hours.

My husband, Yan and I in Hawaii for the Xterra 1/2 Marathon (2012)

My family - my world

My dream could not become a reality without my tribe.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.  I will not let you down.

If

Rarely does a poem speak me to as this one does right now.  Had to share for all those pressing on, who aim to fill their unforgiving minute with 60 seconds worth of distance run...

If
by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, 

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, 

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, 

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, 

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise: 

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster 

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken 

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, 

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, 

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools: 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings 

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, 

And lose, and start again at your beginnings 

    And never breathe a word about your loss; 

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew 

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you 

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’ 

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch, 

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, 

    If all men count with you, but none too much; 

If you can fill the unforgiving minute 

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Onward and Upward

Today I had a celebration of sorts.  A little personal victory party.  After spending the latter half of 2016 dealing with a stress reaction in my foot, I can comfortably say I am not injured anymore!  As a physio, I often advise my patients to mindfully avoid falling into a long term "disability mentality" when they are injured.  There comes a point when your body is healed, but it's easy to still think of yourself as "damaged," and remain fearful of moving normally, living normally.  Although it's still healthy and wise to be cautious post injury, consciously leaving that "injured runner" mentality behind is necessary and so liberating!

Today I completed my first 4 week training block after coming out of my boot.  I started slowly, so slowly, painfully slowly.  First I started replacing some of my bike time with walking on the treadmill.  Then I started moving into run:walk intervals, and then finally short steady runs.  Once I was able to run 4 miles with no walk breaks I moved outside, because I was then moving enough not to freeze to death!  My mileage has slowly increased and I'm feeling the need to hold back to stay in zone 1, which is a great sign. Finally.

All along the way, I gave my body small tests I strongly felt that I could pass. I was not interested in self-sabotaging this whole process and wasting all that valuable healing time I had spent resting. This is the criteria I give my patients, and I made sure to apply it to myself each and every day.

Before Running:
Pain-free walking before running. My personal test was 60 min on the treadmill.

During Running:
1) No obsessing about your injury. If you are aware of your problem with each step and you can't relax and forget about it for whatever reason, that's a sign that maybe you shouldn't be running that day.
2) No limping or altered gait allowed.  I constantly monitored my gait with the metrics from my Garmin, which meant wearing my HRM for all runs.  If my ground contact time R/L balance spread by more than 2% over the course of a run (L 51% R 49%) then I knew I needed to adjust my plan for the next few days.

After Running:
1) No lasting discomfort > 2 hours.
2) No increased morning stiffness or discomfort the next day.
3) Overall healing trend - each week is better than the last.

I just had a 3D Gait Running Assessment completed where I work at The Running & Gait Centre.  I can happily say there is nothing  biomechanically precluding me from running - no red flags.  In fact, my gait is better than it was last year! I'd highly recommend any recovered runner consider having one of our assessments done before starting to increase mileage, if for nothing else than peace of mind.  I'd be lying if I said that I am 100% pain free, but the vast majority of the time I am and each week is better than the last.

So it's time to leave that injured runner mindset behind and move on towards my next race goal.  I am finally confident enough to say that I'll still be toeing the line at the Zion 100 in April.  Very excited. Onward and Upward!

Recovery Food: Chicken & Black Bean Chili

There is nothing better than finishing a run on a cold winter morning, and returning home to a hot bowl of this power-packed chili within that oh-so-important 30 min window.  I love a one dish meal that includes protein, fiber and vegetables all in one pot!  I got this recipe from nutritionist Kira Neumann years ago and it has become a family favourite - even my super picky son cleans up his whole bowl.  Cheap, easy, full of flavour and SO good for you.  It passes all my criteria, so I thought I would share it with those of you who need something new on the menu!

This recipe makes a HUGE batch - I usually make it Friday night and it feeds us all weekend. If you want a vegetarian option, just omit the chicken!

Chicken and Black Bean Chili

10 boneless/skinless chicken thighs
2 onions
3 cloves garlic
3 small red chili peppers (opt)
1 large bunch fresh cilantro
2 large cans diced tomatoes
3 cans black beans, drained & rinsed
3 cubes vegetable boullion
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp paprika
1 1/2 tsp oregano
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1 tbsp honey

1-2 limes (don't omit - this makes the dish)
2 yellow peppers, chopped



Cut the chicken into 1 inch cubes and sauté in olive oil in a large deep pan.  Chop the onion, cilantro stalks (save some leaves for garnish), chillies, and garlic in a food processor. Add to the chicken and sauté until soft.  Add the tomatoes, beans and all the spices and honey.  Simmer for 30-40 minutes.  Add the lime juice and the yellow pepper just before serving.  Heat through.  Serve with plain greek yogurt, sour cream or cottage cheese, and fresh cilantro.  This dish freezes really well.

My Experience with Stress Reaction

Short story: I've been off for a while recovering from a stress reaction and metatarsalgia in my foot.  And I'm back.

Long story for those who are interested in the tale of my cranky bone: read on.

The human body is an amazing thing.  I have patients often comment, "I don't understand why I'm in pain?"  I reply with a wry smile, "you should be asking why you aren't in more pain."

We beat ourselves up every day.  We assume poor posture at our desks.  We use poor body mechanics to lift that load of groceries out of the trunk.  We overtrain or ignore the warnings our body gives us that are hinting at injury.  And sometimes there is just that perfect storm that is unpredictable and therefore unavoidable that sidelines us for a while.

Running injury is often not just one thing.  It's a bunch of little things that add up to be a big thing over time.

This fall I dealt with my first show stopping injury.  I first experienced pain in my forefoot in early July, but it wasn't until Nov 23 that I finally completely stopped running and on Nov 28 I had the MRI that confirmed a stress reaction, suspected stress fracture and diffuse bone marrow edema in my second proximal phalanx. I did not take the news well and and was frankly pissed off that the show stopping pain in my foot was coming from a tiny little bone in my TOE! I am back to running now, have resumed my daily dose of endorphins,  and can finally blog about it.

What is a stress reaction?  I have been telling people I have a stress fracture because it's easier than going through this long diatribe.  Stress fractures and stress reactions are both repetitive stress injuries of bone.  A stress fracture usually appears on a bone scan or MRI as a definitive fracture line, whereas if you catch it early enough, a stress reaction is described as it was in my case as "some linear transverse low signal" in the bone.  Combined with the bone marrow edema (swelling in the middle of the bone), this put me in the stress reaction category.  Regardless of what you call it, my bone was pissed off.  And I was too.  A stress fracture is the most feared injury among runners because the only treatment is total rest, and it often requires weeks off from running.  A stress reaction may only require a few weeks and I was consoled by the fact that maybe, just maybe, I would have an accelerated recovery.

Didn't you know you had a broken foot?  Well, no I didn't at first. Ultra runners always have pain somewhere and foot pain is common.  My right foot is a little messed up from a gymnastics injury when I was a teen and it's often a little sore.  My injury wasn't one that happened suddenly while on a run one day.  It developed over a period of several months during which time the pain would come on after running and then go away with lower mileage or rest.  It started with numbness and tingling in my forefoot and pain under the ball of the foot which are symptoms of metatarsalgia, which is all I thought I had at the time.  As a way to cope with and understand this injury, I have been trying to work out the WHY in this equation.  The answer is that there is no simple reason why which is why it got to the point it did in the first place.

My higher mileage weeks with lots of hill training working on mid-forefoot strike in minimal and possibly worn out shoes in July started me off although I can honestly say I am not a high mileage runner overall and I don't blame this on overtraining.  Then racing the Fat Dog 70 with its 13,000' of elevation didn't help.  As fall came I was forced onto the roads more due to family constraints.  At this point my foot was really getting sore so I started replacing some runs with spinning and stopped doing hills.  Late fall is when I do speed work.  That, combined with the fact that the graston I have been having on my hamstring was working so well,  resulted in my top end interval pace dropping by 2:00/mile in less than a month. All that push off on the roads was the final straw.  Up until this point I never had ANY PAIN while running.  Running was the only time I was totally pain free.  This is not a justification, but important to note the power of endorphins and how endurance athletes can train and compete when they shouldn't.  I was in kick ass shape but it wasn't relevant at this point because finally that last week I couldn't walk without a limp and my foot was throbbing and waking me up at night.  I work on my feet all day long which hurt more than anything - I could barely work more less run.

I was still convinced it was a metatarsalgia, and was self treating with footwear (nothing felt good but barefoot was impossible), met pads (made it worse due to all the swelling), acupuncture (helped), laser (helped), ice baths (bandaid help) and ultrasound (made it worse).  The day I did the ultrasound and felt an immediate stabbing pain, my heart sank.  Ultrasound only hurts when the bone is stressed and it hurts as it absorbs more of the sound waves than soft tissue. I walked right downstairs and made an appointment with my sports med doctor for a week later.  I had a bad feeling that I was about to be wearing one of those horrid cast boots and that I wasn't going to be running for quite some time.

Sure enough, my doc (who also runs with me and knows it takes a LOT to stop me from running), listened to my history, took one look at my swollen foot, ordered the boot and an MRI, and told me we were treating it as a stress fracture until proven otherwise. I was actually ready and grateful for the boot because I was just in that much pain.  I didn't care what it took at this point.  I just needed to get better as fast as possible.

I was fortunate to receive the MRI 5 days later confirming my diagnosis.  My doctor confirmed that I stay the course and in the boot.  Her only other advice was "100% pain-free activity," knowing that I was going to stay active no matter what.  So I wore my boot faithfully for 2 weeks.  I only took it off to drive, spin and do pool running.  For driving and spinning I wore a graphite plate in my shoe and did not stand up on the pedals while spinning. Pool running initially hurt, so a friend who also had dealt with a metatarsal stress fracture suggested I wear shoes in the pool.  Brilliant! So I wore an old pair of Merrell Pace Glove shoes and it worked great. It's not like I was going to be running in them anymore.

I was devastated to have confirmation that it was not just soft tissue, but I was confounded that a small bone in my TOE was giving me so much pain.  Not a metatarsal in my foot as we had thought. My toe. Who gets a stress reaction in their TOE!?  I'm not a pointe ballerina.  Then I looked down at my foot and saw the missing toenail on that toe. I am used to losing my big toe nails each season, but never the 2nd toe.  Hmmm.  All that downhill running that I love at Fat Dog where my toes were jamming into my shoes likely didn't help either.

It was a long 2 weeks (but thankfully not 6) of hobbling around at work, lots of spinning interval workouts, strength training, and a few pool running sessions up to 90 min.  I ended up doing more spinning as it was just more convenient.  At the end of the 2 weeks my foot didn't hurt anymore in the boot and it was time to take it off.  I started back with 5 whole minutes of walking on the treadmill and then would get back on the bike for the rest of my workout.  Over the next 10 days I worked up to 60 min of walking and then started integrating running back into my walks.  It was slow, tedious, and frustrating, but I was so happy to just have no pain anymore and be back to running even a few footsteps.  I gratefully kept each test I was giving myself.

I was so excited to run my first 10 mile training run on New Years day with my buddy Scott.  It felt GREAT!  My foot is happily cushioned in my new Altra Neoshell Lone Peak 3.0 trail shoes which have lots of room for my toes and a stiffer outsole to protect my forefoot. It will be a long time before I try to go back to more minimal shoes, but that's fine with me.  I'm running on frozen ground and snow right now.

Scott and I - my big smile says it ALL!

It was exactly 6 weeks from Nov 23 to the day I ran my first 4 miles without any walk segments.  I'll take it.  Most things heal in 6 weeks - soft tissue, tendons, even bone.  Very few injuries last forever.  I really saw the evidence of that and the benefit of following doctors orders to a T.

Going through this injury has NOT been easy.  As sore as my foot was it was much harder on my mind than my body.  My husband told me right at the beginning (when I really didn't want to hear it), "maybe you'll learn something valuable from this that will make you a better runner, physio and coach."  I glared at him.  But he was right.  I have learned quite a bit about injury psychology, the addictive nature of endurance sports, and cross training while not able to run.  This requires its own dedicated blog post coming soon.

I can now talk to my patients from personal experience, have vowed more than ever to train smart, and hope that my experience will help me coach my athletes more intelligently.

On the topic of coaching and teaching, check out my new website www.bouncestrong.com!

Here's to ReBounding Strong!

The Art of the Dance

Sharing again...because this pic says everything I'm about to write here, and more....PC: Sarah Seads

You can take a girl out of the mountains, but you can't take the mountains out of the girl. As the days get shorter and colder here in central Canada, I again struggle to find my running mojo while running in a very flat and soon to be cold place. There are many advantages to running here.  Leg speed.  Temperature fluctuations. Wind resistance.  Great people.  However, I find myself revisiting memories of great runs past even as I already start to plan for 2017 ~ plan for runs in the mountains.  Why do I continually feel pull back to the mountains?

Trail running.  Mountain running. Dancing.

When I first moved off the roads and started running mountain trails on Vancouver Island, I simply couldn't believe that people actually RAN up the trails my friends were taking me on.  Every run burst my lungs, left me with burning quads, and a deep sense of inferiority as the mountain won battle after battle.  I entered trail races with names like "GutBuster" and "Perseverance Trail Run," continually pushing to succeed at running gnarly mountain terrain.  It was work, it was hard.  I was young, tough, and determined.  I grew to tolerate it.  Even got good at it, earning a few podium finishes. But I still didn't really like mountain running.

But it wasn't until I stopped pushing, and started working WITH the mountain that I fell in love with it.  When I read back over things I've written about my best days running, dance metaphor keeps popping up over and over.  From a woman's perspective, a great dance partner leads you confidently.  You can relax and flow with the dance as you match your partner step for step, perfectly in sync.  When you and your partner apply just the right pressure against each other, you move as one to create a beautiful picture of human movement (which is much easier said than done.)

I'd like to suggest that trail and/or mountain running well executed is the exact same thing.  The mountain is your partner, and you need to work together.  As I talk with my running friends and the athletes that I coach, often hill training is met with dread, and races with lots of elevation create anxiety.

Learning to climb in Squamish, BC:
A perfect example of needing to work with the mountain rather than against it

I have watched so many people attack a climb as if they have to beat it into submission, or lean way too far back on their heels on a descent, fighting the pull of gravity down the mountain.  If you push too hard against that climb, it will push back.  If you resist the pull too much as you descend, it will pull harder. If you commit too heavily to a step that isn't quite right on a gnarly trail, it will drag you down.  You need to match your partner step for step, reacting quickly to stay in sync as the path leads you along.  If you don't start dancing the dance the ground wants you to, you'll either blow up on a climb, trash your quads on a descent, or trip and fall.  Not enjoyable.  Not pretty.  Definitely not art.

One of my favourite joy runs of the year - Cumberland Community Forest

But when you fall into step with the mountain trail and let it lead you, the dance becomes easy and the thing becomes a part of you. Kilian Jornet, arguably one of the world's greatest mountain runners, recently posted this video as a perfect example of what I'm talking about.  It wasn't until I grasped this delicate piece of the equation that I started to truly enjoy and eventually fall in love with mountain trail running.  Mountains, hills, trails - these are things not to be conquered, or attacked.  They are to be flirted with, and they are continually inviting you to dance.  And if you accept, I challenge you to join together with nature to make each run an artful masterpiece of fluid motion.  Not a painful picture of warriors clashing as they battle to the death.  Then that summit will be shared and appreciated as much as it was earned. And it'll have you coming back for more.

Now go out and find somewhere to dance.