An even dozen

 It's twelve years to the day since I first started this blog.

That's a lot of driveling

It used to be like clockwork - a new post published every Friday. Race reports, product reviews, and general prattling on about what I was doing: running, camping, paddling, backpacking, whatever was getting me outside and/or sweaty.

Believe me when I say I'm still doing rather a lot of those things

Heck, I'm even still racing occasionally...but as for writing?

Not so much.

Here's the thing: between working absolutely ridiculous hours, running, lifting, plus playing hockey, I barely have time to sleep. I've fallen more than a month behind in my workout logs: the first of two 100 runs in 100 days challenge has just finished yesterday, but I've only got up to Jan 7th recorded, so it looks like I only ran 54 times right now when I actually finished with 101. 

Like I said - I'm still doing the things

I've also lost a bunch of time to video editing for my silly Youtube channel.

It's practically a "how not to goaltend" series

So with all of this, I find myself still with a race report half-written from October, another one from a few weeks ago that I haven't started yet, and no real hope of having more time to write in future. We laid off one of only 3 employees in my department last month, so there is definitely no help coming with my workload, and I'm having to take time away from work to seek some healthcare for some ongoing issues that are making things kind of miserable.

But at least I got out for a ski with my honey on Family Day

So here it is - 1:45am - and I'm borrowing from tomorrow once again. While I'm not willing to give up on the blog completely, I do know that there's very little chance I'll have time to write in the foreseeable future.

So we'll call it au revoir - not quite goodbye

I hope you all are out there enjoying your lives, reaching your goals, and showing yourself kindness. I wish you the best, and I'll hope to see you soon..

Maybe after goalball season is done?

No place like hockey

 ..for the holidays.

Or at least December in general

It all began Saturday, December 16th - we frequently play pickup hockey on Saturday nights, and this was no exception. It was our first game at RIM Park in quite awhile, and my bottle ended up spilling most of its contents just as it began (leaving me with barely any water for an 80min game - keeping in mind the average temperature inside my equipment is about 32c/90f), but it was pretty fun!

Game video here

Sunday we played our last league game of the year - the season continues after a 2-week holiday break - and I tried to make it a bit fun with an addition to my usual kit, but I played like trash and it resulted in a pretty nasty loss.

I don't recommend watching this game video

I didn't play Monday, but come Tuesday a goalie friend of mine needed someone to cover two games as his knee was bothering him, in a rather unique league at The Zone in Guelph: 2 on 2, on a 95' x 45' rink - basically a quarter of an NHL-size rink, with no markings on the ice around the net for me to use and landmarks for angles. 

I definitely struggled with positioning, as you can see

I faced 47 shots in the two 22-min halves of the first game, and 55 shots in the second game...and allowed 29 goals between the two matches!

It was lots of fun though! Second game video here

Wednesday night, another goalie was unable to make his BLHP shinny game, so I covered that game as well.

..and gave Tank's new stick a custom tape job

I decided - with it being December the 20th - I'd go peak Christmas hockey for this one.

Unfortunately the beard was SO HOT to wear, and I played like junk again!

Thursday was a night off, but we'd signed up to go to stick & puck - basically an open skills and drills practice session - on Friday night. We also had a pickup game booked for Saturday, and I knew if I played in goal at stick & puck (which basically turns into non-stop breakaways and hundreds of shots in the hour of ice time) I would be too beat up to play well on Saturday. So, I improvised.

The first time I'd played out since August!

Come Saturday, it looked like we might not have enough people for the pickup game to happen - the cancel if not enough folks sign up - but there was another stick & puck at the same rink in the timeslot before that, so I decided to register for that to make sure I'd get a skate in.

Tank came along, too

Now here's the thing: at the last minute, a bunch of people signed up for the pickup game...but it was too late for us to cancel out of either the stick & puck or the game without losing our registration fees, so we ended up playing both. I took it a little easy for the first hour in the stick & puck session, but didn't have that luxury in the 80min shinny that followed, as I faced no less than 80 shots!

I survived, but just barely! See it here

Rinks were closed for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day (Sun-Tue), so I got a reprieve, but come Wednesday the 27th BLHP was in need of a goalie again, so back to the net I went. I couldn't get myself together out there, though: it almost felt like my legs weren't even my own, and I was trying to control them like some sort of weird sofa-cushion-clad marionette.

Still a good time, but not a good look

We'd signed up for an 80min pickup game on Thursday as well, and I even went to the trouble of re-taping one of my goal sticks in hopes of playing a bit better. I also took the Santa hat off my mask - can you believe that it stayed on for 7 skates with just a few bits of sock tape? - to see if maybe that might help.

It was time

It was probably my worst game yet: just couldn't stop a bloody beach ball. Seriously, I've seen dollar store coupons save more.

You can see the carnage here

Nonetheless, I went into Friday's pickup game hopeful for better things, and actually played a decent game for once!

Back at RIM Park, but this time my bottle stayed intact!

I was definitely feeling a bit weary by the time Saturday's pickup game in Baden rolled around: not only was it a lot of hockey, the game didn't start until 10pm, and it had been a long day. It was only a 50min game, but with a bunch of hotshot kids on the ice - whose speed and skill were a pleasure to watch, but a little difficult to defend against - I got lit up pretty badly again, and tweaked my groin a little in the process.

But my jersey was fly as heck, so I had that going for me

I did some stretching and massage when I got off the ice, hoping I'd feel better in the morning. We rolled straight out of bed on New Year's Eve and into the car with bags full of still-wet gear for one last skate with less than 12hrs remaining in 2023.

Surprisingly, it was probably my best game of the bunch!

When all was said and done, I'd played 13 times in 16 days - 12 of those in goal, and two of the days had multiple skates - ending with 5 straight games in 5 days. 

I'd survived!

It was a total of 13h3m on the ice - 12h13m in goal - with 5h40m of that in the final 5-day stretch. Oh, and did I mention I ended up in a run streak while all this was happening? I ran every day from Saturday, December 22nd until yesterday: Thursday, January 4th, with double runs on December 24th and 27th. 

I forgot that the 29th was a Friday, so just went out for a run as usual

Distance wasn't much - only a total of 70.5km from Dec 22-31, and another 23.6km since, so less than 100km total - but still a fair bit of stress on my poor, beat-up body. The longest run was only 12.75km, but it was right before the back-to-back stick & puck and pickup game!

There may also have been some shenanigans on the trails

So I've taken this week off of hockey to let things heal - though I did keep running - and will be back to regular league play on Sunday. Will I be able to channel all of this work into better performance on the ice for my team? I have my doubts - I'm kind of awful, as the linked videos amply demonstrate - but at least I can have some fun!

..and have the world's cutest bodyguard for my gear

Happy new year, friends! Hope the holidays were kind to you, and 2024 brings you all that you desire!

By my fingertips

 Stuff is really hard right now.

There's some sunshine, but it all feels uphill

I big part of it is that I've been crazy busy at work, but even once I get away from my desk I'm still pretty swamped. The 100 runs in 100 days challenge started in mid-November and will go through late February, except also starts December 1st and will go to mid-March.

So the double run days will continue for awhile

Add in that I now seem to end up playing hockey 3 times every weekend, and it's a little bit exhausting.

Though it's quite a lot of fun

So in order to relax, what do I do? Of course I hit the climbing gym for the first time in 4 years after work on Wednesday with a couple of my colleagues.

Fortunately, I could still move the next day!

Between end of fiscal quarter yesterday and a really aggressive month-end close target that started today, I've had no time to write the race reports that have now been hanging for more than a month.

I've barely even had time to make snow angels!

I will get to them - I really will - but I need a little breathing space.

At least I'll have plenty of material to write about over the winter!

Hope you all have a relaxing weekend, and I'll see what I can crank out next week..

Apart from a couple of saves

Hiatus

 It's a really busy time right now.

It's been a tough week

Audit season meets end of quarter after our co-op student's term ended, so I had to take back over all the work that the intern has been handling for a few months now. We're getting another, but not until next week..

..and he won't be useful until I train him, which will take at least another two weeks.

So it's been long days at the desk lately, without much sleep - especially since we did some volunteering last Saturday at the Foxtail Hundred from around 8pm til 4am.

Including a minor flash of PTSD for me on arriving at the trail centre

Next weekend will be another sleepless one, in the Haliburton Forest this time. Due to circumstances beyond our control, Tank and I have had to take over running AS4 at the 3k mark of the 50k, 50mi & 100mi course (don't ask me why the aid stations are labeled in the reverse order runners visit them).

I just work here - I don't actually know anything

Since I'll be training our new co-op student all week before driving up to the forest early on Friday to  set things up (including the tent that will be our home for Friday night and hopefully a refuge for a nap or two through the weekend), the blog is going on hiatus for a bit. You get a break from me, I get a break from trying to come up with something worth reading, and hopefully we can re-convene mid-month for some giggles.

Or maybe just hang out with a fun-gi?

In the meantime, I hope you all have an amazing long weekend - sleep an extra hour for me, ok?

I'll be on the move!

Still that?

You'd think I'd know by now that recovery from a big effort is not a quick thing.

Except my brain thinks that was way too long ago to still be relevant

While I've been doing better from a cardiovascular and skin perspective - my feet have healed up nicely, though I'm at that point where a whole lot of dead skin from deeper blisters is starting to need trimming off after every shower - my poor body is still giving me grief when I try to reclaim anything resembling fitness.

I was finally ready to run in the skirt I wore for Tally on Saturday, 3 weeks post-race

I've been taking it relatively easy - I haven't run more than about 8.5km, have given myself the grace to walk when I want, and I've kept the strength training much lighter than usual. I've even started seeing a chiropractor to try to sort out some of the junk going on in my lower back, but I still find myself so sore and tired all the time.

My muscles ache so badly even from 2/3 of the weight I was lifting before the race

I know there are a few factors that aren't helping: I've been incredibly busy at work, which has caused a lot of stress and some late nights. I'm usually ok to lose an hour or two of sleep, but since the 100 miler I feel absolutely knackered - and my Garmin tells me my HRV (heart rate variability - one measure of the body's health and readiness to absorb stress) falls alarmingly - when I get less than 8.5hrs per night. 

..and let me tell you, I have NOT been getting even 8hrs very regularly lately.

I'm sure part of it also has to do with the fact I've been playing some pretty intense hockey lately. I got back in net at least a week earlier than I'd planned, and I've actually started playing twice a week again now. It's just pickup hockey, but there are a lot of really fast, talented players in Waterloo Region, and we always seem to have a bunch of hot wheels and silky mitts on the ice when I get between the pipes.

Me? I'm just a washed up 90s goalie trying not to embarrass myself too badly out there

It's tough on the legs, dragging myself back up to my feet after dropping to the ice. It's tough on the hips when I land on the ice, and it's bloody tough on my adductors and all the other little bits and pieces around my pelvis when I try to stretch for that rebound or cross-ice pass. Sometimes I wonder if I'm just too old for this stuff, or if I shouldn't just try to take it easier and not worry about pucks flying past me...but I can't not try to compete.

It feels some kind of sweet - as a 44 year old woman recently returned to the net - to stop some of these hotshot twentysomething year old guys, too.

To make matters worse, I have a way of committing to stuff that isn't necessarily the healthiest for me: we're going to Foxtail tomorrow evening to help out, and will most likely stay for the overnight as it seems most people aren't too keen on standing around by a buffet table beside a rail trail in the wee hours of the night while a bunch of smelly folks stop by..

And some runners, too!

So I might just have to give myself what my Garmin has been increasingly insistent I need.

It's really been laboring the point lately

Maybe I just won't run Sunday, either at Foxtail (I've been known to take a little trot on the rail trail after the next shift arrives at the aid station in the past) or after we get home. I do have reasons to run to the market tomorrow morning..

(beyond it being incredibly beautiful)

..but maybe I can offer myself some grace after that, and just not run on Sunday. Who knows? Maybe I won't run Monday, either. I have Monster of Mazinaw coming up in 4 weeks, but I'm more likely to be ready for that sort of rugged, technical challenge if I arrive feeling less like a shell of myself than I do now.

You can't run away from your problem if running is the problem

Good luck to all the Foxtail racers - I wish you all the fleetness of foot that I find myself missing right now, and I'll see you out there as the sun begins to drop!

Soften the landing

 It's been almost 3 weeks since Tally in the Valley, and I'm still in the process of recovery.

It took rather a lot out of me, so it's sort of to be expected

My feet are healing up nicely - I've been able to wear lace-up footwear since a week after the race, and the last of the dressings (on the deepest abrasion on the inside of my right heel) was no longer necessary by Wednesday of this week.

There's still a bit of dead skin hanging around the edges of former blisters, but the new skin is strong enough to handle regular wear & tear

Almost everyone knows the basics of post-race recovery - and how that looks for each person or event is going to be a little different - but I thought I'd give you some thoughts on some less-obvious tools than epsom salt baths, massage guns, and foam rollers that I have used to help make the few days post-race a little less uncomfortable.

1. A Cane

Seriously

This is something every household should have on hand, whether they run absurdly long distances or not - almost all of us will twist an ankle or do some other bit of damage that needs a bit of assistance with walking at some point. It took me until Thursday after the race before I could hobble around without one, and it was a great help with anything that required bending at the knee: getting up and down stairs (and my house is seemingly nothing but stairs), or even getting on or off the toilet. Choose utility over looks here - we have a cool cane with a dragon head grip, but it's absolute murder on my hand if I try to actually use it to take weight off my feet. The one pictured above has a comfortable, smooth wooden grip, a sturdy rubber foot, and conveniently breaks down (like a trekking pole) to easily fit in a bag when not needed. I will often bring this to the race with me if I suspect it'll be a tough one, and I've frequently been grateful I did.

2. A plastic chair

Any cheap patio chair will do, as long as it fits in your tub or shower enclosure.

I think you know where I'm going with this

I can't tell you how many times a shower would not have happened after a race if I actually had to stand there. It can be a bit of a challenge to get all of your bits clean while seated, but if the choice is between mostly clean with a bit of fussing or utterly filthy and smelly, I'll do my best in the chair every time.

3. A laundry basket

This one is a bit more esoteric - I used a small laundry basket with a couple of towels inside underneath the covers to keep anything from touching my feet while I slept, because they looked like this (WARNING: I highly suggest you are not eating or drinking anything if you click that link. It's super gross).

I wrapped a large towel under the front edge of the basket to pad it - the smaller towel was mostly to absorb any leakage from the dressings

4. Leak protection

Ok now this is going to be a little gross, and probably more for the ladies, but here we are. I wore a pair of period panties (my favourites are made by Bambody and I purchased through amazon.ca) for a few days - ok a different pair each day folks, I'm not that disgusting (when I'm not on the trail) - after the race, for two reasons: 

                a) In really long races, all of your muscles get worn out...including those that control when things exit your body...and may take a day or two to start functioning properly again.

                b) I was so ridiculously slow moving that I could not be guaranteed to make it to the bathroom in time.

You could also use a maxi pad inside regular underwear for this purpose, but I find that my period panties give much better coverage and are less likely to leak. Better to wash a pair of underoos than have to try to spot-clean the furniture or the carpet on the way to the washroom!

..and here's a picture of a pretty sunset to try to cleanse your mind a little.

5. Shoes that are too big for you

Because of the horrible blisters and abrasions that I suffered during Tally, it wasn't possible for me to wear socks at all for a few days, let alone compression socks. The same damage to my feet also made it difficult for me to put them up at all during my workday, and as a result the swelling in my feet and ankles was astonishing!

Left is after they returned to normal size - right is Wednesday after the race

I ended up wearing Tanker's sandals for a few days. 

My usual shoe size is men's 7.5-8ish, whereas his is men's 11.5-12ish

If you don't have a big-footed person in your home willing to lend you their footwear, it might be worthwhile to invest in a pair of extra-big sandals in case this sort of thing happens to you. I highly recommend buying something easily washable (the above are EVA Birkenstocks, which are non-porous and can be scrubbed up simply with soap and water, then dried with a towel) in case of blister or wound leakage.

You may also want to buy a pair or two of socks that are too big as well. I used a pair of oversize non-compressive (diabetic) socks over the gauze wrap on my feet to try to keep everything in place during the night, and another pair of larger-than-I-usually-need socks on my swollen feet to keep them warm when I went to hang out on the bench at a hockey game the Thursday after the race.

..as I was still stuck in Tank's sandals

6. Hydrocolloid dressings

I've talked about these in the past for blisters, but they're honestly great for any kind of wound (including tattoos - most shops are now using these dressings instead of the old plastic wrap or absorbent pad). These self-adhesive dressings are waterproof and can stay on for multiple days - I've left them for up to a week at times - and prevent infection by sealing the wound, allowing it to heal without disturbing the body's own processes.

They're also thin and flexible to conform to contours, have a bit of stretch to accommodate swelling, and can be overlapped to cover large areas

My preferred brand is 3M Nexcare Tegaderm (link to amazon.ca - I purchased at Zehrs) but I have used Life Brand, Elastoplast, and Band-Aid brand dressings with varying success in the past. 

These dressings will even hold up to running!

So there you have it - my pro tips for making the few days after a race that has absolutely destroyed you a little more comfortable. Do you have any unusual tricks you use when recovering from a big race? Let me know in the comments!

..and be kind to yourselves out there <3