All Downhill From Here

One week from now I will be flying to Tampa, Florida! I have a lot of stuff already packed, including running SHORTS 🙂

Last night Dawn and I showed up at Gord’s for our last group run before our trip. I wasn’t sure how the legs would like running after my 18km weekend, but I felt great AGAIN, two weeks in a row! This building back up after a break is not as hard as I thought it was going to be. Yes, I had some heavy, achy legs at about our halfway point last night (3ish km), but once we turned around to came back into the wind they got better again.

Running back up the Centre Street bridge hill was a piece of cake.

Well! I guess I have no excuses for running hills tomorrow night, then. No weather excuses – there is not much ice left on the sidewalks and another warm Chinook is blowing through tomorrow.

Here’s me in my red race woolies on Saturday at the 12 Mile Coulee 8k. Kathy Taerum of the Calgary Roadrunners must have snapped this while I was still in my first lap, because I still have my mitts and toque on.

Yes, I know I ran hilly 8k yesterday, but I had to get in another good, solid run this weekend in training for the 15k at Tampa in two weeks. Right after pancakes with the family I set some bread to rise and headed out on my usual boring flat out and back route along a busy boulevard. It’s a noisy route with no scenery and not even houses, just tall fences on either side, but the sidewalk is plowed and flat for a long blocks at a time, and it’s nice not to have complications when I just want to get a solid run done. Besides, the less I have to pay attention to outside my body, the more I can just withdraw inwards and think about stuff.

I must have gotten some good thinking done, because I only had 8km on my training plan and I did 10. Serves me right – last weekend I was supposed to do 14km and only did 12. To do 10 I have to decide at 3.5 km to carry on down a HUGE hill and then haul my butt back up. I was making really good time at 3.5 km, so carried on down the hill. It was very mild out today, 10C/50F! and I think I run MUCH better without all that bulky winter clothing.

I’m not saying I felt great or anything – my legs were achy I think from lactic acids built up on yesterday’s race, but I wasn’t really lethargic. They whined, but they kept on a-going. I thought of little blue arrows coming out of my legs like in a biology textbook, and the lactic acids leaving with them.

I hooked my inner self on a little song I learned from the Great Big Sea CD I bought last summer:
Let it go, let it go.
This is smaller than you know.
It’s no bigger than a pebble
lyin’ on a gravel road.

Let it go-o, let it go-o-o
Gotta leave it all behind you
Give the sun a chance to find you
Let it go!

This song has gotten me through a lot of stress in the last year 🙂

At one point I noticed that the snow that that had been pushed aside by the plough was melting on to the sidewalk in an interesting pattern. The concrete was darkened by the moisture in a wide stripe along maybe a third of the width of it. Where the manmade cracks between the sidewalk blocks occurred, the water had been drawn out farther onto the concrete, making spikes along the stripe, just like the visual screen on a hospital heartbeat monitor. It was fascinating,and I thought of how happy I am to be able to make my heart beat so strongly.

I was particularly pleased with my 10k time today – 1:05. Without a race number on, even!

Here’s a photo Kathy Taerum took of me at the Nose Creek 8k XC two weeks ago. Was it cold? I think yes.

Check out some of the hills we ran and the depth of the snow in other photos at the Calgary Roadrunners photo gallery. Click on Nose Creek 05.

Last night I had hills on the schedule but with all the melting lately and then a cooler temperature last night, I thought the hill I usually run might be icier than I’d like. It wasn’t really chilly out, only -3ishC/27F, but it was enough to freeze slush and little puddles.

I rarely wear my Yaktrax on street runs around my house, because the main sidewalks are often cleared, and I just run on the street until I get to the boulevard. Last night I got 30 seconds out on the street and had to turn around and come back for the trax! All the hard-packed rutty snow-slush had turned to ice and I couldn’t even make it down the little slope without slipping.

Once the trax were on I was able to confidently jog right out of the neighborhood on to the main drag… and find lots of dry concrete, so I took them off and carried them the rest of the way.

There was a heavy fog and I found myself not really concentrating on my surroundings. The fog limited visibility to not much more than 30-40 meters or so, and the darkness didn’t help. I felt like I was running in a CSI show.

I got in about 7ish km, dodging the frozen puddles here and there and climbing up and over one big monster drift the sidewalk plow hadn’t been able to get through.

When I got back my hair and wooly mitts were white with frost. I looked like someone had streaked my hair with Whiteout!

Tomorrow Dawn and I are racing the 12 Mile Coulee XC (not 12 miles, merely5), which in the last couple of years has had really nasty weather. Tomorrow’s forecast is for a high of +9C/48F! Hurrah! With all the melting/freezing going on lately, I think it will still be quite a challenge just to make it through the course.

Everything is very, very slushy around here. The snow just can’t melt fast enough and I’m investing a fortune in window washer fluid.

Five Penguins were out at Gord’s last night and it was perfect for running. Well, the air was perfect. The ground was still a little slick. The air was all I needed, though. I welcomed all that fresh warmer air deep into my lungs and felt like running faster.

Since it was so lovely out I hadn’t even brought my toque, and when I took my ear warmers off, my long hair swayed in the wind behind me. I felt like Farrah Fawcett! Eventually we turned back into the wind and I had to put the ear things back on again, but I still felt wonderful.

I originally thought I would hang with the group and hear about LL’s trip to Egypt, but my legs were on a fantastic roll and I left the group behind a few times.

Where the pathway wasn’t covered in grey mashed-potatoe snow there was a slippery, gritty frost layer. The lights made the frost on the paved pathway sparkle like glitter on a black formal dress.

I haven’t had such a good-feeling run like this for WEEKS. I want more!