WW III on a few things: Lateral work, allergy season

UGH.

I feel like right now I am just a big ball of suffering. I am having a lot of trouble breathing, my ears are irritated (my ears people?!) and I am coughing constantly, constant post-nasal drip, running nose and sinus headache from hell.

Sometimes, I hate you!

I’m not sure exactly why my seasonal (year-round seasonal…) allergies are going completely psycho but I am having a SUPER hard time dealing right now. Suffer suffer suffer…I take two Reactine pills and they turn me into a balloon-headed zombie, and the steroids I also take DO NOTHING. Woe is me.

I rode yesterday (hence the WW III reference) and then came home and slept for 2 hours. WTF…

Oh and the riding. Well! Saturday Oats was super good, a bit pokey but generally had his game face on. We schooled some small x-rails to show off for my coworker’s husband and kids who came to say hi to Oats. It was cute, he was well behaved and a fun pony. A good time was had by all.

Sunday…

Oats vs dressage

I was going to gallop in the field for a bit, but the wind started getting really nuts, my allergies were starting to get out of control and I was just.not.feeling.it.

The horses were kind of dingbats anyways, so I headed to the indoor to do some homework: read, lateral work, not the fun gallop Oats would have preferred. And he warmed up nicely, canter is still kind of a lousy work in progress, trot was good and his walk-lateral work off my left leg was lovely!

The right was HORRIBLE.

A battle. Like, a real struggle. I was pretty determined to not let him bully me, or scare me off, or get me frustrated, so I kept at it. He pulled every game out of his nasty bag of tricks- running backwards, throwing his head up and down, gnashing at the bit, yanking the reins out of my hands, running into the wall, hopping up and down, threatening to rear…

I grimly kept. At. IT.

I was talking to him the whole time, and I called him every name in the book, but was gently, consistently, persistently keeping at it.

I did not give up. I did not get mad and let him unfocus me.

It was going to take as long as it took, and boy, it really did. I was so done, but I also realized that in this little tempest in a teapot, if I let him get away with being a shit about this, next time I’d have double the effort to being a shit.

So, he banged his head against the wall, threw his head dramatically around, ran backwards into a jump standard, and was generally committed to being a giant dickhead.

All, rather than give in to my right leg pressure.

Yes, Oats is a freaking drama queen.

The ride that could have been short ended up being VERY long indeed. I was tired, pissed off and like…Really? This again?

When he (extremely grudgingly) gave me a few NICE steps over from my right leg, I went straight and let him stretch down long and low. He immediately snatched the reins and dramatically went to stretch but I let him go.

The whole ride took soooooooooooo long, but in the end, I was the one who won that day.

I hope Oats remembers it! I have no desire to repeat that little drama-rama.

And then as I said before, hopped up on too much allergy meds (which may actually have explained why I was able to zen my way though that miserable episode) I came home and slept for 2 hours in the middle of the afternoon…

Race recap- MEC Race #4- ‘The Best Getter’ 15k

Yep, better late than never?!

I signed up for this one in a flurry of signing up for races- this one and some random trail race happening next weekend.

A photo where it actually looks like I’m running. No recent pics, so you get this old one.

Then I ran the Gutbuster, and then my knee got wonky again, and I started dreading my initial burst of enthusiasm…Why was I signing up for this race? What was my motivation? 15K is still a distance to be respected so what did I think I was messing around with?

ARGH.

So, the knee thing. I went back to the knee doctor and he said relapses are normal, and the biggest part of having the knee problem I have is that it is a complete mystery and people often have no problems, until they have a problem. The hard part is the near-constant worry and paranoia about my knee going sideways and me being unable to complete a run. It can take 5 years to resolve, or may never completely resolve.

Greeatt….

But, to keep doing what I am doing- knee strength exercises, gait retraining, and do the race. See how it goes. The week before the race my knee was killing me. It felt horrible, shifty, sore, swollen under the kneecap, just really shitty. So, I took time off from doing everything, save riding Oats, to protect my knee and prepare for the race.

Turns out that time off really does a body good.

The day of the race the weather was super crummy. We showed up right on time (aka almost 9 minutes before the start eeek) and started the race. Right off the bat Ian set a fairly assertive pace, and to my surprise I was able to hold it – well for like 1km. Then we settled into a quieter pace and then ran that for close to the whole race! I was feeling actually awesome!

The trail portion of the run had me very concerned- the up/down stuff combined with uneven footing + 15k distance= knee disaster. BUT I got lucky! We held the pace well, and coming out of the two trail loops I still felt quite strong.

That good feeling started slipping when we did an out-and-back to Tillicum. Psychologically it was very difficult to think…”but why aren’t we going home yet” when it seemed like we were so close to the road to the finish.

But we stuck with it (which was great!) but then people started passing us (WTF?). Ah, racing…

I didn’t experience knee pain until the bridge, and then it immediately started feeling unstable. I was lucky to hold out that long, honestly, but I was very concerned with being able to finish with just 3km left! What a heartbreaker that would be!

I grimaced and I leaned on my right leg to compensate, and gritted out the last few kms. They were’t very good. I was trying to protect my knee just to finish, there was another small hill (???? why so close to the end!) and the finish line felt far away…

Then we were on the home stretch! We got passed here by a few people again- gah!

BUT we made our goal- under 1:15 with a time of 1:14:33!!! YEAH!!! That meant I was the 7th woman finisher out of 47, and we were 30-ish out of about 99 runners. Not a huge field but a very keen one.

I’m glad I did it. I may not have been at the time, but at points, I really felt like I knew what I was doing. Maybe there is something to this racing thing after all….

Except out of all the photos, no photos of us. BUMMER!!

Persistence

So, this comes up often in my life:

And yesterday, Oats and I did not have a harmonious warm up to our dressage lesson. He was being an absolute dingbat in the outdoor ring, spooky, snorty, sucking back, getting light in front and stalling out and wanting to run backwards.

It pissed me off mightily and I was near tears, frustrated and angry. WHAT about this summer is making him act like an idiot? Seriously, I have not had this level of terrible rides with him in like, forever. And now he’s spooky and a twit.

Summer Oats

I was also still a bit sore, though not bad, from getting dumped – yes in the outdoor- from his big ‘spin and spook’ maneuver on Saturday so I was NOT in a forgiving mood.

I gave up, huffed and fluffed and we had our dressage lesson in the indoor. He was a bit feisty in the indoor, and made me ‘work for it’ to get to the real meat of the lesson, but you know what? That connection that I seriously was missing started coming back.

I even said it felt like before, when I lose all my ‘power’ in the outdoor ring, that I don’t feel like I have any connection with him. I also know that when I am frustrated and mad at him, I do not give him a fair ride, or the benefit of the doubt. So, it’s a partners problem…

But anyways, the lesson went quite well. That doesn’t mean there weren’t bumps in the road, but you know what? We persevere, and I did get some great, honest work from Oats. I finally felt like our connection was coming back! He was over his back, listening to me and really giving to me. I like those rides, and sometimes give too much power to my shitty bad and frustrating rides. Now, to gain some perspective…

I was quite pleased with his effort and the level of work he is starting to give me. He might make a dressage pony yet!

Is it true, we only get the horse we deserve?

Merville 15k race recap!

Yup, time for another race recap. We haven’t raced since our run in Comox at the half-marathon, so I was curious about how this one would feel. I’ve never raced a 15k before, in fact, only trained to run 15k once! (While we were building up our mileage for the half-marathon, actually). So…I went into this one cautiously optimistic, but still wanting to be realistic.

15k and done!!

You may be asking, where is Merville? Good question! Merville is a tiny collection of houses and farms (TONS of horse farms, to my delight!) about 15 minutes north of Courtenay/Comox. It is also sort of the same area as my favourite berry winery, Coastal Black, in the Black Creek area. It is approximately 3.5 hours from Victoria, so it was a bit of a trek for us, and included an overnight stay at my in-laws farm, which they have been very gracious about.

It’s true

We met at the Merville community centre, which is tiny! The race itself started down the road a ways, which kind of meant we had a mandatory warm up, and at the end of the race, cool-down, to get back to the community centre (food!!).

The course was good: Flat, the road wasn’t too slanted, which is what gave us trouble during the half-marathon, and we managed to get out ahead of the slow crowd fairly quickly. I felt good, strong and fairly ‘floaty’ for 5km, and then between 5-9 still felt fairly good…But at around 10-11km, my left knee started twinging VERY unpleasantly. I have a super-wiggly kneecap, and when my legs get tired, they stop supporting it and let it fly off to the left- and yes, it is as painful as it sounds!

My legs were getting tired, the pavement felt like it was starting to drag down my feet (running in quicksand??) and bam! My knee was starting to let me know it was not ok.

From 11km-15, I was cursing and sort of starting to limp and just hoping hoping hoping I could finish. I was so close, I could almost taste it! This is also when the course started devolving into an open road, and the traffic situation was getting a little…hairy!

I somehow (on a prayer basically) managed to make it to the 100m sprint lined by a alleyway of flags!! It felt very special haha. I was gasping and heaving by the end, it was not a pretty sight. They had port-a-potties at the end (thank GOD! I had to pee the entire race gahhh!) and water, oranges, bananas and gummi bears. I grabbed a bunch, and we made our way back to the community centre for a delicious lunch.

The soup they offered was sooo good- I had beef/barley, and Ian had butternut squash. Yum! We ended up leaving shortly afterward to hit up the Cumberland Brewery for a post-race beer (and they were so awesome, I highly recommend visiting that brewery if you’re up-island. Good beer, great folks, nice place!!).

Post-run beer at Cumberland Brewery

And the best news? This was not quite as competitive a race (fewer runners) so I placed 10th out of 21 with my time of 1:17:34 (chip, not bib time) and Ian placed 5th out of 7 but his sprint was 8th overall- out of like 275 runners! Crazy eh!!? The biggest zinger for me was that I got beat by the 9th place runner by 1 second?!! Oooooh!

Race day recap: My first half-marathon with the Comox Valley RV half marathon!

Yes I was certainly leery about this one. A half-marathon? Even with the wimpy ‘half’ in front of it, it seemed quite intimidating. Because I am an excuse machine, I had a zillion excuses ready for why I shouldn’t, and only 1 reason for why I should.

Because I can.

A successful finish!

Soooo we did it! Sunday my husband and I trekked all the way to Courtenay for the race. We had already paid for it by signing up for the entire race series, so we figured- why not?

I was anxious. I let the race take up a TON of mental space and energy all week. My knees and everything felt horrible last week- creaky, achy, like I was having terrible growing pains. Clearly, this was a recipe for success (or failure, I figured!).

And how did the race go? Really well! We raced to the best of our ability, and I was happy with my performance. We even had a very strong finish, which made me super happy and kind of feel like puking at the end.

I smiled a lot for the volunteers and photographers (you guys are the best, you’re so dedicated!!) and I had a lot of people to look at and the scenery was all rural farms, so that was nice. The weather, thank GOD, held out mostly right until the end when another storm front blew in, and it started raining and getting windy, pretty much our last km/km and a half.

Run run run! Photo courtesy of Amber Piercy

I felt for a few of the runners- I just wasn’t sure what their motivation was because this was a bit out of their range- the girl who was walk/running who could do a pretty good 10k but was clearly suffering at the halfway point, gasping so loudly during her run parts that I was worried! And then there was the girl in booty shorts, with blood on her thighs from the chafing. EEEEK! What made that seem like a good idea man? This is 21.1km…

There was music man, the guy with music blasting off his arm pretty loudly, and then there was beeping lady, who had some sort of tracker (heart monitor?) going BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP like…every second. I was glad when we passed her! How she didn’t find that annoying is beyond me…I also saw one woman pulled off to the side, furiously stabbing at her iPod being like, ‘I hate this song!’ ‘I hate this one too!’??????? Seriously? Don’t let a song derail your run. At some point, it has to be internal, all you. Pulled over to mess with your tunes is a BAD IDEA.

Oh yeah really going for it! Photo courtesy of Amber Piercy.

We even saw a girl riding a grey pony down the street, and they were both watching the runners. The pony was older, and so cute. Totally unfazed by music man and the rest of us gasping and heaving our way down the street. Haha.

I learned that I am terrible at grabbing race drinks. Terrible. I splashed pink gatorade all over my face at the first attempt and was coughing and choking, and in my next attempt- even at a walk, still managed to splash water on my face and cough! Boo me! I also learned that roads are…slanted…and if I wanted any hope of saving my knees/legs, I had to really make an effort to run in the middle or on the soft shoulder. Hard lesson to learn but it made a huge difference in my knees.

We blasted (well, it felt like it but it was probably really slow) through the 100m sprint to the finish and we WERE DONE! Woo!! We finished it up with a great chili and some awesome snacks. Yum yum. The food, volunteers and everyone were so great, and really cheerful. Thanks to those guys, we had a lovely run, good food and a fabulous atmosphere!

And my time? Spectacularly mediocre: 2:05 haha. BUT my sprint was good- 5th in my age group! Woo hoo for a strong finish.

We then went and got a beer at Gladstone, which is a pretty cool little brewery and bonus points for literally being across the street from the race. Go us!

The only thing a shark respects is a bigger shark: Thursday jump update!

Actually, my Thursday jumping was very mellow. I was wanting to kind of keep things relaxed (my legs are STILL killing me) and wanted to focus on one thing- slowing down my brain.

I have problems with getting too excited jumping, and blasting around the course, rushing, motorcycling with my body, not being straight. It’s due to anxiety, of course.

Blast from the past- Oats at our old barn.

So, we worked over small, small fences, x-rails. I still, of course, tried to get excited and start rushing, motorcycling, etc. but in the end? I was able to slow it down and get straighter and calmer through the corners. It was good, and my legs started not cooperating by the end by sliding backwards, like they had a mind of their own…ARGH. Anyways, it was funny but I kind of missed that insane adrenaline rush that comes with *gasp* jumping fences higher than…2ft. HAHA.

Old barn with Oats.

It felt like, oh well, that was ok. Not, PHEW! We survived!!!!

Hm. Maybe I’m more into the buzz than I even realize?

Oh well! Good Oats, and good me, haha. And get with the program, legs. Jeesh.

One thing I’d like to pick out is when Oats and I had problems (and boy, did we have our fair share) how easy it is to pick out a ‘reason’ he is being a shit-head. And it’s normal, but I want to reiterate that sometimes it IS THE HORSE and his attitude- not the tack (valid sometimes), seasons (valid sometimes), chiro (valid sometimes) or ulcers (valid sometimes).

Yeah, check those out – but always keep in the back of your mind that it very well could be the HORSE and you have to work with that, not make excuses (like I listed above- reasons can be come excuses very easily. Trust me. I am an expert excuse machine).

I’m lucky that I have trainers that have helped me handle Oats, even when he is being a massive jerk. So much so that his status quo is ‘not jerk’ most of the time. Except maybe in flat classes at the Appy shows. Jesus, those are never going to be his forte.

But it bums me out when I see people fighting the same fights with their horses (online, in person, wherever) when it’s pretty clear they are finding reasons or making excuses, and something’s gotta give.

I’m happy with Oats most days, but he is an animal and not perfect. Hell, neither am I! So basically it works out well.

Weekend recap: Running my legs off~ (But Mr. Oats gets off easy)

Oats only had 1 ride this weekend, as my poor knees just couldn’t take it on Sunday. Saturday, we had a crazy windstorm, complete with rain. Oats is quite well behaved during wind, but he did have one big spook- a chair blew over and a door blew open, just as we were riding by! I couldn’t really blame the guy.

We worked on some flatwork, and then trotted through a line of poles (that definitely weren’t set for him, oops haha, but he is a little fairy pony with clever feet, so he didn’t have a problem with them!).

After lunch Saturday, my husband and I ran approximately 19km (not entirely sure how long it ended up being, because we parked further out from the 1km start and ran from there!). It kind of sucked out loud. My legs started aching immediately. You know that feeling, when you’re not ‘feeling it?’ Yeah, that.

So, I kind of spent like 19km complaining heartily that my legs hurt. I even broke it down:

• 6km. Seriously? Only six? Whaa?
• 7km. Maybe we should turn back here.
• 8km. Or here. HOW did it take like 50 minutes to get here?
• 9km. I guess we’re doing it.
• On the way back: my right leg hurts more than my left leg. Why is that? My left knee is my bad knee?
• Oh, there it goes. My left knee is in on the action too.
• Everything hurts. How is the wind changing direction to blast in our face this way too?
• My left calf is threatening to cramp up.
• My ankle hurts now too.
• Annnddd done!

So yeah.

We got a beer after, and it was more like a grim beer, not a ‘celebratory’ beer. 19km feels like more of a kick in the teeth than 15km, that’s for darn sure! My husband even got some real under-arm chafing going on. Yes, this is serious business guys.

So, Oats got a brief longe outdoors on Sunday while I gingerly hobbled around in the rain. He was less than impressed. ”You want me to go where? It’s raining. I’ll get wet!”

He did get some peppermints I had bought, to see if he might like them as a treat! He does, so good. Oats now has an official treat that isn’t candy canes.

And takes me to this week: My knees!!!!! Ahhhhhghhh…..I am taking it easy this week- no stairs, no elliptical, no sprint work and maybe taking Wed off from the barn too. Yeah, easy means easy (which I actually have a really hard time sticking to!!).

Sports intertwine- Running VS Riding?

Funny enough I don’t really blog much about running except recently some race reports. Truth is I think it is kind of boring, it’s a boring sport to do, and to talk about (for me, mostly).

Probably because I’m not thrillingly fast, and I do find it very disappointing and discouraging. Funny enough in my riding life I am pretty much at the ‘mediocre’ level as well but still LOVE talking about it- to anyone who will listen- aka my blog…HA.

(I will use this opportunity to sneak a riding update- Saturday and Sunday we had to do flatwork, which Oats cooperated but was less than sparkly about). He got the fastest tack up-warm-up-ride, including trot cross-rails and canter circles-yesterday of his life!!). Lesson tomorrow, clip job/tranq today.

But there is cross-over. Riding is a very mental sport, and so is running. The head game is 90% of the win for both of these activities.

So, even through my headline says running VS riding- it’s more like running + riding= mental success! (?????). The success part is still coming I think…

I like this quote from a running blog I read from time to time: Run Selfie Repeat

One of the easiest mistakes you can make when working towards a fitness goal is feeling ashamed, discouraged or defeated by where you’re at instead of empowered by it. We all have to start somewhere! It doesn’t matter how fast you’re doing it, how long it’s taking, or how far you’re going, it’s the fact that you’re showing up and putting the work in that counts. And sometimes you have to stop to smell the flowers, to take a break and remind yourself why made the goal in the first place.

It is very easy to get lost in the process- for both my riding goals/progression AND my running goals.

So I didn’t break the top 10 in yet another race- overall, I’m doing fairly well and injury free. That’s a big win!

I’m getting more out of my jumping lessons (when fear doesn’t overtake my brain) and by being/starting in a comfort zone, I’m also enjoying them MUCH more.

It is easy, so easy to think: I’m not running/riding enough, I should be faster/progressing more, I should be placing higher, jumping higher, etc etc etc…

And why do I do these things? I LOVE these sports (well riding, running…I get a weird sense of self satisfaction from. I call it runner’s smug).

So yeah we can do it! Go us!!