All Downhill From Here

I have been running some in between races – more like twice a week instead of my desired three, but it will do for now. Last Thursday I showed up with the Motley Crue for a hill run up through Edworthy and around the top of Douglas Fir park. Our total run time was 1:11, and most of the time I worked hard to stay with the group.

On Tuesday I made it out for speed work with the same group. We worked through a timed interval ladder of 2, 4, 8, 4, 2 minutes in between a warm-up, cool down, drills and calisthenics. I didn’t totally push it to the limit, but worked hard and it felt good. Extra bonus – Sarah and I kept up with each other and it was most excellent.

NOTE – NEW MEETING PLACE: 
After Thanksgiving the group will start meeting at the U of C Olympic Oval, near the registration desk. We’ll still run outside until the ground ices up, but it’s a warm place to meet for the colder darker months.

We had perfect weather for the first trail race in this season’s Calgary Roadrunners Grand Prix series. I wore in my CRR singlet and shorts and the temperature was just right, even with the river crossings. Oh yes, we got to cross the rocky-bottomed river twice. What fun!

The course gave us a nice warm-up loop around the playground before we hit the water. I splashed right in and ran halfway across the river, but then had to hunker down to avoid having the current knock me over in knee deep water. If the bottom hadn’t been so rocky I might have been bolder (ha ha) – maybe not. I hauled myself up the steep river bank on a rope that Derek the  race director had rigged up for us.

Little Runner and friends cheered us on from the bridge and away we went. The feeling came back into my toes as I jogged and hiked up to the top of the East ridge. After a short run along the top we took an abrupt u-turn and headed back down to the river crossing again. I didn’t hold back on the pathway down and heard Les up above yell “Give’er Cooksley!” Wheee!

Dawn took some great pics in the first loop.

I walked 2/3 of the river crossing on the way back, then splashed out and carried on past the playground again. Little Runner cheered me on from the swings. What a great course – river crossings and playground passings! The shorter distance runners headed off to the finish at that point, but I climbed up to the dog-park plateau for the longer route. Derek paced me up around the plateau for a while before carrying on to check on other runners and volunteers.

Derek said the course was closer to 6.9k than the traditional 8. I hiked hard on the ups and kicked butt on the downs. My lungs had a hard time keeping up with my legs, but we all finished together.  Since I knew it was a little shorter race with a downhill finish, I didn’t intend to save much for the end. Kathy took this photo of me just before I headed into the last descent.

On the last big downhill there were big dirt stairs shored up with wood with a dirt trail to the side. Greg was making his way down the dirt trail just ahead of me, so I devised a big skipping rhythm to negotiate the stairs. Boing boing! I felt like Tigger.

My long trail runs this summer are paying off. Even though I felt quite cardio-challenged most of the race, my legs had no problem with the terrain and I didn’t feel tired or achy in the hours or days that followed.

It was a busy weekend. The night before I’d gone grocery shopping and cooked up a split pea soup to bring to the race. After soup and brownies I hurried home to spiff up all nice for a company party at Fort Calgary.

Saturday morning I met up with with Ontarian import Leaha for a recovery run. We ran together last winter/spring at some of the Tech Shop Half M training runs, but this summer trained mostly on our own. This would be her first run since finishing the Muskoka 70.3 two weeks ago.

I think she called me up because she knew I could do a distance run with her and would be gentle. We also have a lot in common so our chatting distracts each other from fatigue. I got to hear all the gory details of her Muskoka experience; the lake roll, the hilly bike and run courses, how cold it was, her first rainy ride, and how she made it through to the end.

I took her on part of my favourite local training route and across Nose Hill Park and back, about 14-15k total with a few steep hills, mostly on hard packed dirt. We were out there for about 2.5 hours. No hurry, just enjoyed the view. No crazy runs down hills or busting our butts up (this time).

She aimed to keep her heart rate below 145 and just called a walk whenever we needed it. It was just what I needed, too. It was a good excuse to get out there for a couple of hours of merrily traipsing about with no heavy expectations.

I’d love to do it again in a few weeks (October 18 or 19). We might go a little faster and a little further by then. If you’d like to join us drop me a note.

Next weekend is the River Park Classic trail race – the first in the 10 race winter Grand Prix series. I am very excited about that. I will be bringing a split pea soup to share, and maybe something chocolate for the dessert table. If you’d like to come but aren’t sure about running trails, come out anyway. We can always use another course marshal or two.

Last night I ran a nice, big hill in a loop with the 10k Roadrunners.  There were only six of us, as it started to rain shortly before we met up. We waited a bit to see if it would blow over, but it didn’t really matter. We were out there to run no matter what the weather, so we ran in the rain.

On the big incline of the pathway that leads up east of the Children’s Hospital we got quite wet and cold. The wind blew the rain into us as we were exposed to it on the bare hill. Once we got up by the University, however, we turned our backs to the wind, ducked in through the residential neighbourhood, and the rain stopped.

After that it was pretty much all downhill from there – my favourite kind of run 🙂

The group waited for me a couple of times at the beginning of the run when we were climbing, and Davey stayed back with me to chat and keep me company while we climbed. On the way down I worked hard not to hold the group back, and I think they enjoyed going a little easier than they sometimes do. Whatever, we had a good one together and I’m looking forward to coming out again next Thursday.

I ran for the first time since Moose on Monday night. 35 minutes on neighbourhood trails in the fading daylight, right after a suppertime downpour. The air was FRESH and it felt darned amazing just to be out there breathing deeply.

I’m hoping to be out with the 10k group again this Thursday to run hills.

To say I’m looking forward to the Roadrunners Grand Prix Series would be an enormous understatement.

Just a note to let you all know I’m still here; just not running much. After the Moose I took it easy and settled down to catch up on a little homemaking. Summer was quite the whirlwind of training, and I’d promised myself and my family that I cut back on that a tad this fall.

Apparently I took it too easy, as a flu took hold and knocked me flat.

I knew in the weeks leading up to the Moose that my immune system would be challenged by the stress of a few other things in addition to training, so I tried to stay as healthy as I could. Then last Friday afternoon I started feeling woozy. After work I cooked up a big pot of garlicky chicken soup, with homemade stock I’d frozen only two weeks before. I stuck around home on Saturday, thinking about getting out for a jog, but never actually made it out.

Sunday morning Little Runner and I were up at dawn so we could go orienteering at the ZOO! We had some fun adventures there, and it was a blast orienteering the zoo grounds, but I lost her four flipping times before brunch. I was nearly insane by the fourth time I found her, and it bothered me that it was getting so hard to keep my temper.

Brunch with the Orienteers at the zoo was amazing. Fantastic food and great company. I didn’t go overboard on the buffet – didn’t even finish my chocolate mousse dessert. Oh, and since three of our Orienteers (including me) had given up one of the last O-competition meets to run the Moose, we were honoured with awards at the brunch! I came in last and still got mentioned. Cool.

I napped Sunday after all that excitement – still not feeling right. Felt terrible when I awoke. Huh. Must have napped too long or something. Went grocery shopping. Made a healthy, healthy dinner. Turned in early.

I woke up at 2:00 a.m. Monday with a 102*F fever! Ugh. No stomach issues, no head cold or cough, just fever, awful aches and that icky crawly skin feeling for a couple days. I would have blogged it while I was home, but my home computer and my blog host don’t seem to be seeing eye to eye at the moment. You really don’t want all the details of my flu anyway, eh? Maybe it’s not a flu – maybe I’m just in running withdrawal. Hmm.

I’m back at work today. I’m not 100% yet, but it feels better to be up and getting some work done than lounging in bad-daytime-tv-land. I’m thinking that kicking this flu to the curb ought to set my antibody levels way up there just in time for flu season. The timing could have been way worse. I can deal with this.

To say last week was hectic would be the understatement of the summer. I did not sleep much or eat well. I wrapped things up at work from Monday to Wednesday. Thursday I stepped off my crazy merry-go-round to spend the day with family as we said our final goodbyes to Grandma in the pouring rain.

Other than that, I spent nearly every waking hour (more of those than usual) in preparation for the Robert Hamilton Memorial Race. I did not do any trail runs. I did walk 5 miles at a time, while measuring the course with a little wheel thingy. By yesterday afternoon I was a shell-shocked zombie, having chewed way more than I thought I’d bitten off. I don’t know if I’ll ever direct a race again, but I sure learned a lot.

Now? I’m going on a little vacation. My family and I are going to drive somewhere nice, set up the tent, and relax together. I will bring my running shoes, my swim suit, and maybe my bike, but mostly I look forward to floating down the river and going on little hikes with the hubby and kids. I hope I see deer and bunny rabbits. I hope I don’t see any rattle snakes.

No email. No excel spreadsheets. No computer! Not much cell phone reception. Nothing that resembles The Amazing Race of my life in any way. Of course, that means no blogging this week. I’ll share with you an essay I wrote for the Roadrunners newsletter earlier this year to keep you entertained while I’m gone. See you in September.