When Did That Happen? My Narcissistic Treadmill Trance.

As I rolled over this morning and peered at the time on the clock radio I was already thinking about having to go for a run. It was a must because I set myself a goal of 60km for the week and I was approximately 20km shy of the target. It had been a long day of flying and we arrived into Ottawa late at night, or more accurately early in the morning so my desire to roll out of bed, change, and run was missing. I laid in bed for 5 minutes before deciding that what I needed was a triple shot Americano and an oatmeal. Decision made I hopped into the shower and got ready to face the day. With my oatmeal in my belly and the Americano in my hand I headed past the Parliament buildings towards the market. I purchased farm fresh raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and blueberries….oh so delicious.

On my way back to the Radisson I noted that Chapters was open and decided to wander into the store. If you sense a bit of procrastination in this story you would be correct in your astute observation. The problem is that I love books and I could spend hours in a bookstore. Thankfully I only spent one hour and no money, a rare feat for me.

 After I made it to my room I was resolved to go for a run and feeling revived and ready to attempt my first 20km in over a month. I changed and headed for parking garage level one. No, I had no intention of running around a parkade but for some strange reason that is where the fitness room is in the hotel. No one was using the facilities so as I had my choice of the two treadmills. One faced the wall with a full length mirror the other faced the opposite wall with a full length mirror. The second one had an air conditioning unit, which I know does not work, on the upper part of the mirror but it has a functioning fan beside the treadmill. That was the deciding factor. I stepped on the treadmill, picked my playlist on my iPhone, turned on my Bose quiet comfort 15, started the treadmill, my nikeband and watch. It was time for action. I was a little daunted about the prospect of running a 20km, never mind running it on a treadmill.

 As I began to run I remembered what Christoper Bergland said about a trance like state when he runs. Mouth slightly open, head moving side to side, and tongue sticking out slightly can induce a trance like state. I gave it a go. I found myself thinking, “is my throat going to get dry with my mouth open? Is my tongue out enough? Is is the natural motion from jogging that moves your head or do you have to make it move more?” Needless to say all of that inner chatter wasn’t going to make my trance state appear very fast if at all. So I turned up the volume a little and tried to think of other tips he has in his book The Athlete’s Way. Ah, bingo there was a mention of fixating on a light on the treadmill to help the zoning out process, perfect. I looked at a piece of the air conditioning unit, took off my glasses, all the while running, to induce my trance.

As I ran and fixated I looked in the mirror and thought ‘When did that happen?’ The top of my head, from the nose up, was chopped off by the a.c unit, so when I looked in the mirror I saw from the nose down. I looked at the person in the mirror, and all though I knew it was me my brain seemed to be removed from the process. The body was moving, and the mind was observing. Is that me? I looked at the tanned toned arms, the sweat glistening on my skin, the slimmer waist and hips, and the lean leg muscles. I was dissecting my body. Yet it didn’t feel like that was me because my body was moving without any participation from my brain. At least conscious participation. I looked at my tapped knee, my Nike Air Pegasus 27 Trail runners, running skirt, my iPhone attached to my arm, and my running tank so it was definitely me moving. With that verified I went back to wondering when did that happen. I know friends and family commented on me loosing weight and looking good. But it happened so subtly that I never quite noticed. There were changes, my pants didn’t fit me anymore so I had to go purchase three new pants and a pair of shorts for summer. The new shorts became to big, and the jeans that I purchased in Montreal three months ago seemed to be getting a little to big.

 That was confirmed last week when I put on my newly washed and hung to dry jeans, no dryer for I did not want them to shrink. When I pulled the jeans over my hips I went to do up the zipper and button….ah, weird the zipper was already zipped. I thought I was loosing my marbles, there is no way that they went over my hips zipped up! So I did an empirical test, yep I pulled my pants down over my hips with the zipper still zipped. ACK! Good thing I am not 8 years old because I could be in trouble. My nephews, both 8 years old, have been going through a spell of pulling down each other’s pants in public. Sneak up behind the other boy and surprise. Needless to say if I were 8yrs old I would start wearing a belt.

 I knew my body was changing, but the only mirror I own is the one attached to the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. No real opportunity to see myself head to toe in a mirror to see how my clothes were fitting. As I focused on the body in the mirror and remembering about any changes that happened and figuring out when they may have happened the treadmill began to slow down. Oh what a pain in my butt, dumb treadmill. I looked down at the control panel and realized an hour had passed by and it was starting the 5 minute cool down period. Holy Moly, how did that happen? So I sped up the treadmill because I didn’t want to cool down. ACK, dumb treadmill has stopped. Oops, 5 minutes is up, make that one hour and 5 minutes with 6.27miles. It dawned on me that there might be something to this trance thing, I fiddled with the controls to get the treadmill going before I started thinking about running. Away I went. I peered into the mirror and started my narcissistic treadmill trance (NTT). If obsessing about the body in the mirror got me through the first 10km without realizing it, I was going to keep on focusing on me.

 Over the next 5 km I thought about writing this blog, revising it, and all the while looking at the jogger in the mirror. Before I knew it, the 5km disappeared effortlessly. Sweet. 15km down only 5km to go :) Then I goofed, I decided to slow down the treadmill. I had been running for 15km so I figured I should drink some water and walk for a minute. After a minute and a half I sped up the treadmill. OOPS, I took too long the trance was broken, my legs and back protested as I began to run. Although I didn’t get my NT T state back it wasn’t until the last km that I was feeling ready to get off the treadmill, but with the knowledge that I only had 1 km left I kept going. There was no way I was going to stop short of my goal, especially by one measly kilometer.

 I smiled as I stepped off the treadmill because I tested the trance state idea and was victorious. The key for me was not fixating on a red light, but on thinking about something other than the running process. This time it was all about me, next time I will focus on another topic. One thing is definite, I now have a new tool in my running tool box!

    ---Claudia

Motivation

I have come to the realization that motivation is a daily endeavor. After the Canadian Death Race I took the month of August to relax and heal my body, mind, and spirit. As the end of August approaches I find myself trying to find out what to do, where to find the motivation to do what I have set out to do, and actually going out and doing it. September 01, 2010 is the begining of the end of my training vacation. I find myself wondering “how?” How to start. How to continue. How to keep on going. I also wonder ‘why?’ Why I am doing this? What do I want to accomplish? To assist me I started reading “The Athlete’s Way,” by Christopher Bergland. I read it last year, well at least the first 3/4s of the book. Just as I did then I find it very interesting, it is an easy read, informative, and full of wonderful ideas and quotes. So as September has now begun, I am embracing his suggestions of writing a log for the next 56 days tracking distance, exertion, insights, how I felt before/during/and after the exercise. The thing I really appreciate is that he is an elite endurance athlete and yet his definition of an athlete encompasses so many ‘regular’people. His definition, “Anyone who exercises regularly with intent.” He further states that ‘”The Athlete’s Way’ is the process by which you go about doing what you do.” I am also going to test out his idea of going into a trance state when you run. He acheives his by opening his mouth, having his tongue stick out a bit and with the motion of his head moving back and forth he is able to enter a trance and the running becomes effortless. Hmmm, effortless I like the sound of that!! If you have not read the book, I highly recommend it as reading material. His topics encompass who he is, what he has accomplished, the science of sport, positive psychology, a training program, nutrition, stretching, etc. Maybe he is such an inspiration because he seems like an every day individual that overcame substance abuse to win the Triple IronMan three times, and yet considers everyone who “exercises with intent” as an athlete. That makes me feel like I can be part of an amazing community and able to accomplish anything that I choose to accomplish. Which is truly amazing

Time to get serious! And time to avoid the Grizzlies!!!!

It has been wonderful taking time to heal from such a grueling training schedule.  Essentially, the entire month of August has been a training holiday.  Just knowing that a simple 30km/week is okay while recovering was an amazing feeling. The tough thing was having my bones and muscles protest throughout the night, and as I stepped onto my feet in the morning.  I learnt very quickly that stretching out my legs, with damaged knees, is something that has to be done slowly.  It only took me one night where my right leg was straightened and the instantaneous pain in my knee made sure that it would be done very gingerly every night thereafter.  It didn’t matter that I was barely awake.  

Even though it has been a time of healing I still had to get on the treadmill or hit the road , and some days it was tough.  The left knee hurt for a couple of weeks after the race, usually around 7-9km into a run.  My solution would be to slow down my pace so I was not pounding on my feet as hard.  It seemed to work, and by the end of the second week no left knee pain.

The right knee is a different matter.  It still hurts.  After all it took the brunt of the remaining race (38km).  Running throughout August it didn’t feel any worse and certainly it didn’t feel any better.  Being smart I realized that I would need to seek professional help (not of the psychological variety...at least not yet).  Plus, Pammie and I made a deal when we were descending Mt. Flood.  It was agreed upon that if I went to a physiotherapist and got my knee checked out she would get her knee checked out.  Which incidentally has been hurting her off and on for a few months.  

Brrr, it's cold in Kananaskis! 

So I made an appointment at Active Physiotherapy in Bridgeland.  I am incredibly happy that I went, and highly recommend it to anyone in Calgary looking for a physiotherapist.  Laura was fantastic.  No surprise I do have issues with my right knee.  She completed a thorough examination, asked many questions, explained what she was doing and why, and then administered some treatment.  The difference in the right knee during the assessment and after the treatment was huge.  Of course I have to go back for more treatments, and I have exercises to do daily.  Thankfully I am still allowed to run.  

I set myself up an appointment for a sports massage at Leela Eco Spa & Studio, which I went to this morning.  The idea was to go the day after my first long trail run, thinking it would be very beneficial.  It was very beneficial but I never did complete my long trail run.

Super Pam denanananana Super Pam!

The plan was to run Turbine Canyon in Kananaskis.  Great, a 30km trail run which meant I could do a couple of easy 5km runs throughout the week.  We arrived at the Upper Kananaskis Lake parking area to find a warning of a Mamma grizzly with her two cubs  are around the area of that trail.  No worries, Grizzlies are scary enough, Sow Grizzlies are way scarier so we changed our trail run.  A nice run around Upper Kananaskis Lake would be fantastic.  Not the distance planned, but sometimes you just have to roll with the punches.  On the trail there was a big pile of Berry Barf.....ewww.  Heads up, it was fresh.  We kept going, stopping and taking pictures along the way.  Chatting while we ran and the bear bells tinkling.  As we approached the other parking lot, approximately a third of the way around the lake, Pam mentioned that she was struggling.  As much as I didn’t want to be struggling, I was, and I admitted it.  VERY SMART, as it made her start to walk and we talked as we went from the picnic area to the other end of the parking lot.  I would say that Pammie is very intuitive, at that moment she asked “What do we do if we see a bear?”  As soon as those words were uttered we both stopped dead in our tracks.  A male adolescent grizzly walked out from the bushes 25 feet in front of us.  He looked at us, and Pam started to turn around to walk away.  I said, something to the effect of “don’t turn around, back away slowly, not so fast, nice and slow.”  He looked at the bush in front of him and then looked at us.  Unfortunately the wind was howling towards us, so our human scent was being taken away from us and not towards the Grizzly.  Most bears will avoid the trouble of humans, unless startled, we surprised him just a tiny bit.  Thank Sweet Baby Jesus.  He looked back at us, as we kept creeping slowly backwards.  Essentially letting him know that we were not a threat and didn’t want a confrontation.  Since we were not a threat he left us alone.  When we hit the pavement of the parking lot, after getting a picture, we headed to the pay phone and called in a report.  

We let the people in the parking lot know the bear was just on the other side of the lot down the trail, and very close.  They all hightailed it out of there, very smart.  

After the call was made we decided to return the direction we came from, we certainly were not going to head back towards the Grizzly. We walked and talked,  and definitely did NOT run.  Let me tell you it was a long 4.5 km back to the other parking lot.  The heightened sense of awareness was incredible, something I have never experienced before.  The adrenaline crash after we were safely back in my car was something I was familiar with.  

He is actually Big! Just can't tell with this shot :P

It was an incredible experience, one that I don’t really want to experience again.  But when you trail run in Alberta the chances are high that there are Bears and Cougars in the area.  Take note of the signs, avoid areas they have been spotted, and always carry protection.  Well the protection works for a bear, kiss your life goodbye if you are being stalked by a Cougar :P

That ended our day of trail running, so we headed home via the Smith-Dorrien trail and Canmore.  Where we spotted a baby moose.  So cute!   Needless to say my respect for wildlife is enormous, and seeing a Grizzly that close I have even more respect...if that is possible.  I am sad to say that as summer disappears so does my trail running in the mountains.  I will try to get as many mountain runs in September as possible, since my training schedule is finished summer holidays.

Baby Moose on the Smith Dorrien Trail