Yesterday I took the kids to Bowmont Park for a hike. We found some crocuses, threw rocks into the river, and played in the ice and mud. We traipsed hither and yon through the brown, hilly ravine.
I took 58 photos, none of which feature green vegetation, but I flickred a few interesting ones anyway.
I’d re-title this “Finally, April”, except there are still thigh high snow drifts in my neighbourhood and yo, it’s April already! But enough whining.
Once upon a time there was a small child who had a temper tantrum in the supermarket. After she’d begged and cried, pouted and held her breath until she passed out, she eventually came to and still had to carry on home without her desired delectables. My spring running slump goes like that some years. I pout and whine and fuss, and still have to carry on without my spring arriving when and in the manner I wish it would.
I did find some solid ground on which to run this week.
Tuesday at lunch I ran with the brand new Calgary Roadrunners Start Line group. We ran for 30 seconds at a time and walked for 90 seconds in between, for 20 minutes. I got to run up front,because I had a watch that could actually beep at those intervals, and I have bright red mitts. At each beep I got to signal to the group behind me by waving a red mitt high in the air and shout “RUN!” or “WALK!”
Okay, true confession – Melody asked me to lead the group because she knew I could keep it at a fairly slow jog for the newbies. Hey, I’ve been a Penguin for nine years – I specialize in that pace. It worked pretty well, we think. I’ll be out there again this Tuesday.
Tuesday night I still had a little energy left, and my family kicked me out the door to go run with the 10k group at Edworthy Park. Liesbeth and Meaghan kept me company while we ran a steady 5 miles between Home Road and the Crowchild bridge. Including a couple of short breaks, we ran for 58:55 and I had no desire to finish running the whole hour to round out the numbers.
Thursday night instead of running I curled up in front of Survivor and began knitting my second apple/pear cozy. It looks pretty cool, except that it’s the size of a large crabapple. I suppose it would suit a fig.
This morning I realized that I’d been a lazy bum all yesterday and got myself out the door for a short 33 minute run/hike. Then I took Little Runner to the pool. I did a few laps before the workout dissolved into a session of “how to look like a mermaid underwater” with the kiddo. I do believe that she will learn to float for longer than 10 seconds, eventually.
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Posted in Cold, Knitting, Life in General, Running, Running Friends, Swimming, Volunteering | Tags: Calgary, club, Cold, friends, Knitting, parenting, roadrunners, Running, snow, Swimming, whining
I finished knitting a complicated hat that has been driving me nuts since mid-February. It was my first try at a stranded project. The rhythm of the rounds got to be kind of cool when I got used to it, but I really had to pay attention in the reducing part towards the top and lost patience towards the end.
It feels kind of good to have accomplished something today, even if it’s an accomplishment with impatient mistakes in it.
Now I’m going to make some cookies with Little Runner and then start on a much much much simpler knitting project.
Posted in Knitting
Last weekend I was supposed to meet my mom to hand over Little Runner for spring break. That didn’t work, due to the snowstorm. I said I’d go up this weekend, as if I’d brought her up before, because I would have traveled this weekend anyway.
Still not happening. There’s MORE SNOW out there. Less than last week’s storm, but I’m whiny and I think I’m fighting a mutated version of the cold I had last month. I gave it to Little Runner who gave it to Hubby, who’s giving it back. I don’t want to drive 3 hours one way in the snow.
I’m going to sit and knit. No running. I’m tired of not touching earth when I run. My earth has all this crusty stuff all over it that cracks and crumbles and doesn’t melt fast enough. It’s like a fungus – it keeps returning!
I promise to run Tuesday, with the new CRR learn to run class (called The Start Line) downtown at noon. I get to help coach. That will do for now.
I might get on the bike trainer in the basement this weekend. Might not.
Oh hey, it’s Earth Hour tonight. I can knit by candlelight.
The Cross Country Grand Prix Awards Dinner on Saturday, March 21 was fun as always.
Usually we play a fun party game before dinner. This year it was a scavenger hunt through our pockets, purses and cars. Our table won. Woohoo! It helped that Kent had a fountain pen, Melody had a compass on the hiking stick in her car, Philippa wore an analog watch, Lorna had an old bus pass stashed away and Jim knew the magnetic declination of Calgary. I contributed my blood donor card. The only thing we missed was an old pocket calendar.
The potluck dinner was delicious. I ate until I was stuffed. I got to dress up the awards table with various roots I found at the supermarket (celery root, beets, carrots, peanuts, onions, ginger) and then later I played “Vanna” when the age group and iron person awards were announced.
The age group awards were ceramic mugs that the XC committee hand painted at a craft shop. This year the theme was “Back to Your Roots/Routes”, so each mug had art referring to that theme. Very cool. Derek made awards from glass fusion for the male and female overall winners.
Ironpersons also received mugs, but with a race photo of the recipient on them. They also received an 8 x 10 print of their race photo. We had the most Ironpersons ever this year.
Again, I won stuff. This year I moved up to 2nd Place in the Women’s 40-49 category and I was also an Ironperson. Showing up when others don’t pays off.
There were doorprizes, good music, and lots of good conversation. It was a nice way to wrap up the season.
Posted in Canadian Content, Running Friends, Volunteering, XC Races | Tags: Calgary, club, cross country, dinner, friends, roadrunners, Running, trails, XC
A month ago, I arranged to meet my mom in Red Deer (halfway between her home and mine) yesterday (Saturday) to hand over Little Runner for spring break. A death in my step-family stirred up the plans with folks converging on her house from Vancouver and Yellowknife, and I had Saturday night plans, so I said I’d just drive all the way up (3.5 hours one way) and back today (Sunday) instead.
Not happening.
My car is now under 3 inches of sticky wet spring snow and the roads are too. If you’re looking at this Sunday morning, check out the links for Calgary region and further north. All those red lines don’t look good. Neither do the photos from the overpass cameras. The webcams in town are not encouraging either.
Here’s a screen shot of one of the links above, in case you’re not reading this post this morning:
See those little red lines? Not good.
I’ve got snow tires, but still would rather not test them out on that stuff today. Technology is so cool! Unfortunately it can’t make storms go away when we want them to 😦
I’ll get as far as the library (I’ve got books due) and to the store for some milk. Then I think I’ll cook up a beef stew and knit.
Posted in Canadian Content, Cold, Knitting, Life in General | Tags: Calgary, Cold, Knitting, parenting, snow
I couldn’t find the chocolate mint box of Gu I bought last Christmas, which I was saving specifically for whiny long spring runs. I’ve looked high and low for it. It’s driving me nuts.
Eventually I did get out the door for my long run, and it was all downhill from there. Literally. I ran downhill for over 30 minutes, deep into the bottom of Bowmont Park, to the Bow River. I took some pictures with my phone and mucked around in the mud in the park for a while and hiked back up.
Towards the end I ran some more, for a total of 1:44 out in the thin sunshine and strong cold wind.
I kind of hoped I’d see a wild windflower or two, but I didn’t. I didn’t see anything green except some slime under a south facing waterfall. The waterfall was nice.
Mucking about in the mud was kind of fun. I think I achieved the maximum weight of mud my trail shoes are capable of carrying before they would get sucked off my feet. Splashing about in snowcone snow and puddles afterwards was kind of fun too, but after that it was just a big slog uphill and against the blustery wind to home.
Why am I doing this, again?
Do you hear that sound? You think it is just the wind, and you desperately hope it is, because this is the season when we delude ourselves with the thought that that warm weather is imminent and that the wind will bring it. No, that is not just the wind you hear. It is also the sound of a million Calgarians whining that spring is just not evident enough yet. I’m one of them.
Despite my initial excitement when Dawn gave me dibs on her bib to the upcoming, exclusive Police Half race, I am still struggling with my spring running motivation. Since the last XC race (see previous post) I’ve run some, but the effort has been half-hearted at best.
Tuesday March 10 I ran one last time inside the O. Oval with the 10k group. I completed a 3 x 1 mile workout at a pace slightly faster than my warm-up.
Thursday March 12 I hauled myself out for a half-hour trail run over the hills in the doggy parks. I stopped to pick up milk on the way home and still made it back before sunset.
Last weekend I got too caught up puttering around the house and never actually made it out running on the Saturday. I told myself I’d get in a run on Sunday afternoon, but after volunteering at the St. Patrick’s Day race Sunday morning and then doing a major grocery stock-up, I succumbed to fatigue instead.
I enjoyed volunteering at the St. Pat’s race. I got to help set up the clock stand and observe the magic of our finish line guru, Jim, as he directed Barry and I through the finish line set up. Theoretically I was to mark the start line with pylons, too, but misunderstood where they were to go. No matter, the race started in the right place anyway, eventually. I would have helped out with course marshaling or more finish line stuff, but somehow missed the split second when they handed out assignments. I shouldn’t have drunk so much coffee that morning, I guess. I did get to cheer in some friends and one of my bosses, and I drank Steamwhistle beer from a green bottle, so that was cool.
Back to my half-hearted running litany: Tuesday March 17 I ate my green broccoli, donned my green running shirt, and jogged with Little Runner up to the soccer fields on a plateau above my crescent. She got as far as the frozen-over playground and stayed there while I ran laps around the flat fields. The elevation was flat. The terrain was not. There was mud, soft thick 3 inch deep grass, ice, slush and crusty snow. It was like a trail run without hills. I managed barely half an hour of that before LR and I jogged home together again.
I didn’t run with the 10k group, as now they’ve moved their start times to 6:30, which makes it really difficult for me to show up on time, due to work and family routines. Change must happen slowly when depending on the support of others. I hope to work back to 6:30 starts later in the season.
We did the same thing on Thursday, only one lap shorter, for a 20 minute jog. As much as I tell myself I like running over sketchy, slippery terrain, as much as I tell myself I enjoy the challenge of conquering Canadian weather and whatever it brings, as much as I try to savour the beauty of snow and melt and ice and frost, I have to admit I’m really tired of it. This is not good, because consistently friendly warm weather is still a couple of months away.
Do I really want to run the Police Half next month? Maybe I should tell Dawn to give the bib to someone else.
Did you really read through all that rambling and whining? Wow. Your endurance is impressive.
I’m going out to run now, for far longer than half an hour. I don’t think I’ll outrun the wind, but maybe I can outrun my whine.
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Posted in Cold, Road Races, Running, Running Friends, Running Indoors, Volunteering | Tags: beer, Calgary, club, Cold, friends, hills, ice, Indoors, Olympic Oval, race, roadrunners, Running, snow, spring, trails, training, volunteer, whining, wind
It was brutal. The wind howled, which made it feel much colder than the forecast high of 2°C. I’ve worn shorts at one other Fish Creek XC race, but not his year.
The terrain was a nasty, unpredictable combination of hard and soft, deep and shallow sugar/ice, which late in the race softened to the consistency of a snow cone. It was nearly impossible to know whether my next step would be soft or hard until I landed.
I made the most progress while trotting lightly on my toes, which was really hard for the first 20 minutes, because I couldn’t actually feel them. I tried to lean forward and keep my heels up, a trail running strategy I believe keeps me from tripping.
Thinking light, so as to stay on top of the snow
There one small bit of mud on the course, precariously perched on an unavoidable ledge. I could not even tackle the downhills with abandon, as it was hard to tell if I would end up on top or stuck knee-deep. The fear of hyper extending a lower extremity hampered my usual momentum.
The brutality of it all did not stop me from opting for the second loop of the race, because the weatherman was forecasting even more horrific conditions the next day (which have since come true). I wanted to do a 90 minute run this weekend for my peace of mind in training for a late-April half marathon. Since I was already out there, and the first loop had taken me over 40 minutes to complete, I might as well keep on going.
I was on my own much of the race, so I made sure my eyes scanned for course markers as well as terrain changes. There were a few stretches of time in which I was able to relax and just glide step by step, breath by breath, through my bubble of space.
I hate to say it, but I lapped Dawn 72 minutes into the race. I stuck with her as we climbed through the woods up the second last hill. When we came out on top we could see the finish. It was so tempting to just leave the last down-and-up of the course to cut across the top! Dawn’s sore leg was giving her trouble, so that’s what she chose. No shame in tending to injury. Better that she survives to run another day.
I hadn’t come that far into the second loop to be disqualified for it, so I gave her my best and carried on through the last part of the race. As I came around the bottom of the cliff I could hear Derek cheering me on from above. Les came down the hill part way and Dawn was there, telling me to sprint up the final hill. Yeah, right.
The hill was a monster! The photo below shows only a quarter of it.
Final Hill
I walked some of it at the bottom and the mustered a run towards the top. When I got to the finish line I made everyone laugh by crawling across it.
Crawling over the finish line
As always, our volunteers are very accommodating of all types of racers. Rob was kind enough to make sure I got my timing stick by holding it low enough for me to see it.
Done
All photos in this post (except for the butt shot by Dawn Henry) were taken by Kathy Taerum of the Calgary Roadrunners.
I was last. Yet, thanks to the magic of Age Groups, I was also second. It was worth it.
All Downhill From Here 