Super Curly Crazy Hair and a Bondi Band

Hi There,

Here I am!

I have hair...curly hair...crazy hair....This is a picture where I actually am wearing it down....I Love my hair...it has taken me roughly 25 years to actually figure out how to style and handle my hair (I will be 29 in 25 days....Chi-Marathon also 25 days away)

ANYWAY: The reason my hair is CRAZY is because it is actually pretty fine...I just have a lot of it... A LOT...I pretty much shed more than a small animal does...if it was thick and nice...I would probably wear it down more or I could straighten etc....I have two hair styles....Down and UP!

I wear a headband everyday....I love them...it keeps my hair out of my face...it is kind of my signature....underneath every hair band that is cloth (non cloth ones are fine) I need to wear a Goody:




Love the Goody Comb circle thingy....in fact I go through them like crazy....I wear them on their own...it works...we have a good relationship...except that when I run...even if I wear the goody a hand band will NOT stay in...I have tried every cloth head band imaginable...ones with rubber, sticky, small width, wide width, thick, thin etc....I had pretty much given up and aways wear a hat or a visor when I run....They are good but I find I can over heat in them because I have so MUCH hair...cloth hairbands are way better....if I just wear the goody I get nasty stinging salty eyes...no one likes that...

I contacted Rebecca over at Bondi Band to ask them a couple of questions about which would be a good fit for me...She was so kind and sent me a black heavy wicking band..I received it in the mail yesterday...I am not going to lie....I was hesitant...how could something so thin stay on my head, wick sweat and look good....I tried it on....felt okay...but the true test was running...last night I had on tap a sweaty tempo 6km...Rebecca instructed that I should wear it once inch above the brow line...I probably had it a bit too high in the picture...I adjusted it to closer to the brow line when running...


Well Guess What? The BONDI BAND WORKED!! (Honestly if you listen closely you can hear angles singing right now)....I was so SURPRISED...I had doubts....but NOT any more....No stinging eyes...no hair adjustment...pure bliss!

Thank you Rebecca and Bondi Band!!! I can't wait to order some really funky colours and maybe after Chicago a 26.2 one!!!


Does anyone else have hair trouble when they run???

Long Run Recap

Hi Folks,


Short post: Ran 29km on Sunday....wasn't into the route...was super stiff...legs hurt...no nutrition...not a happy camper...the best part was the end when we all went to my Marathon Instructors house for Brunch! (Thanks Jane and Rick....you guys ROCK!). It was so motivating...Jane has run Chicago Marathon a few times and showed us pictures, posters, her medals....it was just what I needed after a challenging run (both mentally and physically). No more 29km runs this cycle....35km on tap for Sunday...most likely will do another London to Port Stanley Run...It is so nice that for the first time in a LONG time I can "let go" of a bad run....I feel at peace....life is good....

6km tempo run Tuesday...(Sports Psychologist is coming to speak to my running group again! Woot Woot!)
5x800's Yasso's or 10km Fartlek for Wednesday...
Thursday: 10km
Friday:Rest
Saturday: Yoga
Sunday: LAST LONG RUN!



Happy Running!

1 MONTH UNTIL CHICAGO

I cannot believe that today I am officially 1 month away from Running the Chicago Marathon....Pretty exciting folks!!

Weekend Recap!

Hi Folks,


I took a quiet week as my legs were still feeling quite stiff...I had a sports massage on Thursday night and decided to take Friday and Saturday as rest days...This really helped a great deal...Sunday I woke up nice and early and met my friend Lindsay to do our 32km run...we joined with another local running store...We did a run from London to Port Stanley...



Let me tell you...IT WAS A BLAST! They had the best rest stops...Lots of water/sports drink, tons of fruit, candy, salty treats...everyone was so encouraging....almost 200 people did this training run...I was so impressed and plan on doing this again next year....I felt so encouraged by everyone...The neat part is that you can start anywhere a long the trail...so if you only needed to do 10km you can! Fabulous!


Me, Lindsay and Catherine (3 Crazy Ladies Running Chicago!)

I ran with Lindsay the entire time. We really focused on slowing down the pace. This helped the legs....but man is it hard to slow down sometimes....Catherine had an amazing run as well! I cannot wait to run Chicago with them!


I immediately got home and stretched! This helped so much...then me and the hubby packed up the car and headed to Muskoka for a few days...he drove the entire way and I sat in the car with ice packs on the knees....good times...

I did hardly anything on Monday...was pretty much a couch potato...I stretched and rolled and was FINALLY starting to see a light at the end of this crappy leg pain tunnel...Instead of a tempo run on Tuesday I did a steady run...I am not wanting to push it too much at this point....

Tonight I came home and did my first night of Yasso 800's at a local track...I did four sets...not wanting to push it....

It was great...I had an average time of 4:02...Now this is all relative...can I run a 4:02:00 marathon? At this point...no way....

With my 30km race time I used the Macmillan Running Calculator....it would predict a 4:33:31...THAT seems CRAZY fast to me....soooo we will see....I do enjoy the speed work....

Tomorrow I have another massage scheduled! Woot Woot...hopefully it won't hurt as much! Then Friday I need to get at least a 10km run in....Sunday will only be 29km....two more crazy long runs left....Let me tell you...I will be happy once the taper is here!


Happy Running!

Cherry On Top Award

Sandy at Sassy Runner Girl, so so kind to award me the Cherry on Top Award...

The Rules:

1. Answer this question: If you had the chance to go back and change one thing in your life, would you and what would it be?

2. The third and final thing is, thank the person who gave you the award.


1. I don't know if I would go back and change anything in my life....maybe it would have been to continue running after my first Marathon in 2007...as this cycle it is all feeling so new again...However that being said...I think I made the right choice at the time (it involved working crazy night shift hours etc) and I think I came back with a vengeance...I have PR'd, I am enjoying running, I am running a lot more, I will actually run on my own....so I guess that I don't have any regrets!!

2. Thank you so much Sassy Runner Girl

*This award has been passed around to so many inspirational bloggers...So if you haven't received it yet consider this a shoutout to you! Do you have any regrets?!?!?

DONE AND DONE!

Hill Training is finished for this cycle....13km with 10x Hill repeats in this heat=brutal...I am SO OVER hills! Bring on the Speed WORK!

Knee Update

So Last night I ran a 6km tempo run....it went well...I think that the thing that MOST hurt was the humidity...man it felt like 40degrees out there! I will be happy once we get some relief in the Weather somewhere around Friday! The knee felt surprisingly okay...I didn't push it to hard...I listened to my body...Right now I think the stretching and Rolling is helping...I came home from the run and did my routine and then woke up this morning and did the same thing...for the next little bit I am going to have to double dip in this department in order to keep things calm down there...



I have another massage appointment scheduled but not for a few weeks....so hard to get into all these places right now since it is FALL marathon time!

I just wanted to give a shout out to some of the other fall marathoner/half-marathoner blogger's...There are at least 3-4 of you who are struggling with injury...I am thinking about you and sending positive vibes your way....injuries can be devastating and frustrating...I found this a good article from Runner's World in September...

Chicago is now only 39 days away! We are in the 30's people! This also means only 39 days until my birthday....still need to figure out what to wear for the marathon!