The Excitement is Building!

Well, our first taper has arrived. Only 10 days until our first half-marathon of 2014. This was the last full build/taper that we will be doing for a while, as we have three half-marathons scheduled within 36 days.

One of the neat parts of going through this training and racing together, is being able to understand how different our bodies are. This is important to keep in mind when you have a training partner for anything; you likely won’t both excel in the same areas, and your bodies may not have identical reactions to the exact same training schedule.

I’ll explain…

For Melissa, the last 10 days have been AMAZING! I had a great 16k in the slush and snow to start last week off. On Wednesday, I had an appointment with Kim Ethier of Restorative Health in Smiths Falls, to work on any areas of my body that were giving me trouble. On Sunday, I worked on a new running technique with Michael Stashin of www.runeffortlessly.com; we focused on form and perfecting my technique. And to top it all off, I registered for my first snowshoe race! Yes, that’s right; my first time trying them out is going to be a 6.7Km snowshoe race in Frontenac on Sunday. You know what Eleanor Roosevelt said about doing something that scares you!

As for Kaitlin, the last few days (including my 18k) were AWFUL. I have a severe gluten allergy and a dairy sensitivity. Sometimes this, in addition to a very fast paced lifestyle, makes it hard to get enough calories during heavy training. This is something that several coaches had warned us of when we were first discussing our goals for 2014, and I had to find out the hard way this week. After several days of feeling faint and nauseous, I began adding extra protein (chicken and harmonized vegan protein powder) into my diet and eating small portions many times throughout the day. These changes seemed to help, but it's probably time that we visit a nutritionist to make sure we're ready for the next 11.5 months.

There will be times when this happens, it’s inevitable. However, our hopes are that the AMAZING weeks that we both have, will outweigh the others. Essentially, this is the reason for our blog. We have committed to a goal of running 13 half-marathons in one year and we want to be able to share our highs and lows with you. Things that worked and didn’t work; problems we encounter; and celebrating our accomplishments.

Until next time,

Kaitlin & Melissa