Heart Rate Training

What have I been doing since Emilie's Runs' big belly flop. Well the the sting from my big flop took a while to wear off. At first I was a bit stunned and numb then as it all began to sink in I would find myself becoming emotional just thinking about how disappointing it all had been. I set out to do a beautiful swan dive however things didn't come off quite as gracefully as I had envisioned them. I actually began to wonder if I was built for this running stuff. Perhaps I was just born with a bum foot and I seriously questioned how much longer I was going to put it through all of this torture. I don't remeber a run where the foot was ever 100% happy before, during or after. It has been 3 years of icing, stretching, rehab, massage, x-rays, cushioning shoes, support shoes, minimal shoes, orthotic inserts, form training, strength exercises and taping all of which were required for this bum foot/ankle of mine. I really had lost all hope that it would ever be able to stand up to the rigors of training. Before I threw in the towel though I headed off to my Physiotherapist Stacee in hopes that she could help me figure out how to fix what I feared could not be.

"I have to get up early to run".

A few weeks ago as I was tucking my 11 year old daughter into bed(a ritual I will surely miss as she gets older...boo hoo hoo) she turned over to face me pulling the covers up snugly around her neck and enthusiastically said, "Mom, I have to get up early to run." After picking my jaw up off of the ground I casually asked her why she was running in the morning without letting on just how proud her statement had made me. She explained that she and her fellow kayakers at "Sprint Camp" all ran as a warm-up before their morning paddle. This was the first time I ever saw my daughter looking forward to "running". Having joined the "Running Club" at school the past 2 years it seemed that her experience with running had been dampened by the "unfunness" of the workouts. I was very grateful that her morning warm-up runs had shown her that running is a great way to wake up her mind and body to prepare her for the new day. 

She competed in her first regatta in Ottawa this past Saturday and took home 3 first place ribbons in the Pee Wee K2 , Pee Wee K4 and Bantam K4. I was such a wreck before each race you'd have thought I was racing myself. We really had no idea how their little club would stack up against the larger clubs at the regatta but the proof was in the ribbons and I guess that the warm-up runs really paid off not to mention the many hours the girls spent kayaking of course.  

Rhiannon and Harmonie celebrating their win in the K2



Paddling for victory in the K4