Calgary Police Half Marathon – Race Report

I picked up my race packet for the Calgary Police Half on Thursday. Here is a shot of the race shirt. I am quite fond of it!
And the back...This is a really popular race - it sells out quickly. There is also a 5K race (that I ran last year), that the shirts aren't nearly as nice for and it isn't chip timed. I had signed up for this race as a way to keep up some fitness over the late winter/early spring. I've had a bit of a tough time getting some of the long runs in though lately. This morning I woke up feeling pretty nervous. I felt like this was a test in high school that I hadn't studied for. I just really had no clue what to expect of this race. I headed off to the race start at Mount Royal College. I was running a bit late and missed the warm up with the team, but as soon as I got inside the college I ran into my friend Tara. I had enough time to hit the bathrooms, then we went and hung out at the start. Tara's goal was a bit more ambitious than mine so as soon as we started I wished her good luck and we split up.

Initially I really wanted to aim for a negative split on this run. When I checked out the elevation profile of the race I realized that may be a tough goal. The first half is somewhat downhill, but the second half is a whole lot of uphill! I decided to run the downhills at a pace that felt good and see what happened on the uphills.

About half a mile in I ran into my teammate Pam. We ran together for about a mile and then I pulled ahead. I was enjoying the downhill! We alternated with running the pathway around the Glenmore Reservoir and running on streets. I was a bit worried that we would bunch up anytime we were on the pathways, but we were all spread out quite nicely actually. After running the eastern part of the reservoir we turned and ran directly went on 90 Ave SW. This was where the fun started as there was a steady uphill grade all the way along. We turned and got back on to the pathway around the res near Weaslehead Flats. Anytime I run this part of the rest I find it is one of the most difficult parts of the run. For some reason I always manage to really slow down in this part and today was no exception. I was slowing down and it was feeling like the energy was seaping out of my legs. I needed to get past the people nearby as it felt like we were all slowing down together and I wanted to get past that. I hit the halfway mark around 1:01. If I could keep things up I would make a fantastic time but I was pretty sure that would be tough.

There is a huge climb out of Weaselhead. I've run this hill quite a bit, so I knew what to expect. I also knew that my friends Dawn and Karen would be there cheering runners on. As I got to the hill and climbed up I kept repeating in my head, "Karen and Dawn....Karen and Dawn..." since I knew I would get a huge boost seeing them! Dawn managed to grab a shot of me halfway up the hill.After the climb my legs were pretty tired. I was sort of in a "hold on" space of mind from here on out. Without about 2 miles left to go the wheels started to fall off. I had just finished thinking that I could do anything for 2 miles...no need to walk... And seeing the continuous uphill just got to me and I had to take a break to walk. I was disappointed that I had let the hills get to me... Time to start running again and just keep going. Uphill... Uphill...

As I neared the finish line at Mount Royal there was someone lying on the side of the road getting some help from the police. So close to the finish. I hope they are okay.

Just past there I saw Angie and the rest of the Team Tri Life athletes cheering the finishers on. Time to kick it in for a sprint to the finish! I blew past a few people and crossed the finish line! Done! My previous PR from the Last Chance Half was 2:07:41. Results for today?

2:05:22
Overall: 1055 out of 1833
Females 30-39: 145 out of 311

This course is a tough one, so I'm really happy that I managed a PR today...and after feeling somewhat unprepared for the race as well! Afterwards I cheered a few people in, but as I started to cool off I went inside and ran into Andra. We caught up on each other's races and she grabbed a shot of me.I met up with a few more friends, we grabbed some of the post race snacks and hung out for a bit. Then it was time to head home and get on with recovering... Stay tuned!

Supplementation and a Long Run

After running intervals on Thursday the stiffness and soreness set in to my legs almost immediately. Friday I hobbled around the office looking like I'd just gotten off of a horse. Running on 17.4 mi* on Saturday was going to be interesting...

I spent my Friday evening at a sports nutrition seminar. The talk was divided in to two parts - the first focusing on food choices, the second focusing on supplementation. The talk focusing on nutrition was fairly interesting. Some of it I knew already, but I did take a few interesting things away. The part focusing on supplementation...well... I can barely remember to take a multi-vitamin on a regular basis, but it was interesting to hear about how certain deficiencies can play a role in fatigue, muscle cramping and inflammation. What are your thoughts on supplementation? Does it play a key role in your nutrition strategy, or do you try to eat as well balanced as possible? Where I didn't agree with the speaker was when he talked about what he eats on a daily basis...and most of what he eats is some form of supplement as opposed to real, actual food. My attitude towards food has always been that I think you can have something as long as it is in moderation. Take that out and consume a bunch of powders or bars for your main meals and somehow that makes eating seem a lot less enjoyable. But different strokes for different folks, right?

Luckily by the time Saturday rolled around my legs weren't quite as stiff. I wanted to take it easy on them so I purposely tried to start my run at a slower pace - a good 30 seconds per mile slower than where I was at on my last long run. This time I tried a couple of new Gu flavours on my run too, to see if it made a difference from Hammer Gel. I brought Lemon Sublime and Triple Berry with me. Both tasted...not too bad. I thought I would head out to the Glenmore Reservoir, one of my favourite places for a long run. The pathways were pretty quiet out considering how nice of a day it was. I was keeping a fairly consistent pace for the first bit, but then around the 6 mile mark I slowed down a bit... Then with a mile or so left to go on my first loop around the reservoir I hit a patch of pathway covered in snow and ice. I gingerly made my way across the ice, and then once I started running again I could feel the fatigue in my legs. As I finished up my loop I tried to not look at my car for fear that it would tempt me to stop running and head home instead. I didn't want to navigate the icy part of the pathway again so I opted to do an out and back on the second loop. I alternated miles between feeling good and feeling fatigued. So much for starting slowly with the idea that I might speed up later! No doubt it was relative to running a hard race the weekend before... It felt good when I finally hit 17.4 miles and I could stop running. I wouldn't label this run as terrible because despite the fatigue in my legs it didn't go too badly. I kind of viewed it as good preparation for how I would feel in the later miles of the marathon. I think I still need to work on my pacing strategy though... When I got home I spent about 20 minutes spinning on my bike at a nice high cadence to try and work some of the stiffness out of my legs. It helped immensely! The weather was nice enough that I could have ridden outside, but truthfully I didn't feel like riding any of the hills around my neighborhood so I opted for the trainer instead.

Well, that's about it for me! I hope everyone else had a great weekend!

*Why such an oddball number for my long run? My coach gives me my long runs in either kilometers or time. In terms of distance and pace I can really only think of it in terms of miles though..! So 28 km, or 17.4 miles...

Facing Down My Nemesis

I hope you guys all had a great Halloween. Mine was pretty low key. I hung out with my family to see my niece's first time to dress up and go trick or treating. She was the cutest little elephant!

I can say that all common sense went out the window on Halloween. Mini-chocolate bar? Don't mind if I do... Orange Halloween shortbread cookie? Sure... Once the little elephant was off to bed the rest of us hung out, chowed down on some Papa John's and some Big Rock Winter Ale and watched Run Fatboy Run.It was the perfect combination of carb loading and motivation in the form of a movie. I love me my Brit humour and I rather enjoyed the movie. I was ready to face down my 15 miler...

The 15 miler would seem to be my nemesis. Both times I have run that distance it has turned into a serious gong show. The first time was a year ago down at the Glenmore Reservoir. The last part of my run was fuelled purely by adrenalin as I was freaked out about the bear warning signs. And it was freezing. 15 miles...3:05:08...12:03/mi. You can read the run report here. It is truly a tale of what to not do on your long run...

The second time I ran 15 miles was this summer. It was crazy hot out, my bladder was on overdrive, I had some weird hip pain (that hasn't recurred since, knock on wood) and I just really had a hard time mentally getting through this run. 15 miles...2:57:30...11:50/mi.

By all rights today wasn't entirely a 15 miler. I had 25K on the schedule which is 15.5 miles. A totally different ball game, right? And Calgary was in line for an amazing fall day. It was 10 deg C (50 deg F) already when I woke up and we were forecast to get up to 16 C (61 F). I didn't feel like just running around my neighborhood so I headed out to Glenmore Reservoir. Yup, the scene of last year's bear run. I had been assured by a coworker who ran out there last weekend that there were no bear warning signs up right now though. I planned to run two shortened laps around the reservoir which I figured should get me to the right distance.

I felt amazing as I started out. Everything was in sync. I was running low to sub 10:00 miles and my heart rate was just hanging out in zone 2 with no issues. The sun was shining and the mountains in the distance looked beautiful. It was one of those days were you just felt so grateful to be healthy and alive and out there doing this. At 5 miles I stopped to walk and down a vanilla Hammer Gel. Once I got back to running my rhythm felt like it had been thrown off. I was struggling to hold my pace and my heart rate was shooting in to zone 3. It felt like it took a good mile and a half to get back in to it. What happened to my great run? I finished up the loop around the res at about 8.6 miles in. I dropped my long sleeve top off at the car and opted to rejig the route since a second loop would give me more mileage than I needed. I ran an out and back along the north part of the res instead. At 10 miles in I downed an espresso Hammer Gel. I didn't get quite the same reaction on this one, so I'll have to see if vanilla poses a problem or if it was just some weird anomaly. Or if it is just blood being diverted to help digest the gel and that makes my heart rate rise?

I was still holding an average of a 10:00 mile for the whole run so I figured this would give me a good idea of where I should aim for pace wise at my half marathon next weekend. Once I hit the half marathon distance my legs were feeling like they were done with it. The last couple of miles were a real struggle and I slowed down a lot. It just felt like my hip flexors were really tightening up and my knees were hurting. I was ready to be done...

15 miles done in 2:31:37.
15.5 miles done in 2:37:16. A 10:09/mi pace.

Not a bad improvement from July, eh? So anyhow, this run was definitely a learning experience for me. I need to hold back a bit in the first few miles. I know I can hold the pace over the distance, but if I hold back in the beginning I'll have more left in the tank for the rest of the run. And if I can do that I may be able to hold this pace or better on even longer runs.

After that it was time to head home...with a couple of detours along the way. I stopped off to get a hot chocolate for a recovery drink and popped in to Linen's n Things which is going out of business here. I needed to get a new coffee maker for when my parents come to town next weekend so I figured this was a good opportunity. Once I got home my day wasn't over yet though! I had a 30 min recovery ride scheduled. I grabbed a bite to eat, then changed into some cycling capris and a short sleeve cycling jersey and took off to explore a new route out from my house. I headed north along a country road that I had never been on before. It must be a pretty popular cycling route though because I'm sure that I saw more cyclists than cars on my short ride. The ride was beautiful and the weather was fantastic. I was almost sad that I needed to turn around so quickly. Except this was supposed to be a short recovery ride, not an all out endurance ride so I needed to head back. I'm looking forward to exploring around here a bit more next spring.

All in all, a fantastic day. Too bad this amazing weather is going to be pretty short lived!

Going the Extra Mile

Today's run was - in a word - fantastic. Here's why:

• I started the run off nice and slow as I didn't want to burn out too quickly.
• I got to see two Remax hot air balloons lift off early in to my run.
• I downed a rather scrumptious tropical flavour Hammer Gel at mile 5. Mmm, caffeine...
  
• There were some IMC folks running behind me for a bit. Apparently somewhere there is a 130m pool that you can swim?
• I saw lots of wildlife - deer, gophers, geese, ducks...
• When I hit the big hill at the end of my first loop of Glenmore Reservoir, right around mile 10, it didn't feel like I had to work to get up that hill at all.
• I started to run faster.
• I downed a yummy chocolate Hammer Gel at mile 11.
• At mile 13 I saw a sign taped to a water fountain that said "You look amazingly beautiful today." No idea who it was for, but it definitely made me smile.
• I was the really chipper one on the pathway, smiling and saying hello to everyone.
• Mmmm, delicious espresso Hammer Gel at mile 16. Yay for caffeine!
• I passed a bike at mile 16.
  
• I passed a guy I recognized from the Footstock race as we had trundled up the big hill together for awhile. We stopped to chat, talk about races, then each went back on our merry way in opposite directions around the reservoir.
• My legs continued to feel fantastic the entire way.
• Note to self, Body Glide wears away after about 18 miles. Remember to bring a small stick with me on the marathon.
  
• I hit mile 20 before the big hill again. I decided to keep running to at least my car. I powered through the hill again and kept going. I wanted to finish 21 miles.
• My pace didn't slow during the final miles, in fact they were some of my fastest miles.
• I thought of Claire during my run, racing the full IM distance Vineman today. Since she hates running I was willing her some of my good running mojo.
• I felt like I could have run the extra 5.2 miles today.

I hope this bodes well for my marathon in a few weeks. I was a bit nervous about running on my own since I had Giovanna's company on my last few long runs but this goes down as one of my best runs ever. The only bad thing to happen on the run? The bottle of Gatorade that I bought halfway through to refill my Camelbak was supposed to be orange, but yuck...it was gross... I went for a massage a few hours after the run and it was probably one of the best decisions ever. I actually feel pretty good. In fact, I nearly fell asleep and that never happens for me during a massage.
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By the way, if you are wondering whether I rushed to sign up for the brand new IM 70.3 in Calgary today, I didn't. But I have my reasons for that...

18 Miles...Done!

This morning I met Giovanna at the Weaselhead parking lot off of Glenmore Reservoir just after 6:00 am. I figured we could run two 9 mile loops and that would give plenty of opportunity for bathroom breaks and a chance to refill in case I ran out of water. It seemed pretty cool as soon as I got out of the car so I threw on a jacket that I had brought with me. About 4 mins into the run I regreted the decision because I was now burning up. We decided to turn around so I could drop the jacket back off at the car. We ran a pretty good pace along the north side of the reservoir and the conversation was great. Giovanna is moving to Nashville in a couple of weeks and she's trying to talk me into the Country Music Marathon event next year. This race hasn't really been on my radar, but time wise it may be a great opportunity for a half marathon (before...ahem...tri season starts next year). I kept missing walk breaks since I wasn't checking my watch often enough so we wound up walking for about a minute after every mile. At mile 5 it was time to try another Hammer Gel flavour - Apple Cinnamon. This tastes exactly like pie filling. Overall, not too bad, but maybe a tad too sweet. Espresso is still my favourite, but after scouring several shops in Calgary this week I can't find any more right now.

It was starting to warm up and I am so glad that we started as early as we did because the sun was starting to blaze. Thanks to doubling back we finished up the first loop at 10 miles so I figured we may have to shorten the route around the reservoir on lap two. We skipped running over Glenmore Trail and over the dam across the reservoir and ran the pathway right along Glenmore Trail instead. Once we were around 13 or 14 miles I mentally started to flag a bit but Giovanna was really quick to say something positive and it helped me out a lot. At 18 miles I thought we were done running even though we were about a half a mile from the car. We walked for a bit, but as we approached the final hill Giovanna wanted to run it. What a way to finish up an 18 miler - with a massive hill at the end! We both ran really strong and it felt so good to be done. We tried to stretch a bit but my hamstrings weren't too happy with that so we called it a day and headed off. I'm hoping I'll have a chance to run with Giovanna again before she leaves. It was fantastic having her there and it really made those 3-1/2 hours fly by this morning. On my way home I stopped at Tim Horton's for a Bagel B.E.L.T. which was amazing. 18 miles...done...bring on 20 in two weeks!

Running with Friends

Last week Karen e-mailed me to ask if I needed some company on a long run this weekend. She's currently training for the Moose Mountain trail race and needed to run for about two hours with a hill. I had 12 miles on my schedule. I figured the company would be terrific, so we decided to meet at Glenmore Reservoir at 7 am on Saturday, along with Karen's friend Giovanna. We decided to run the north side of the reservoir first since it has less tree cover so it would be better to get it over and done with while it was still somewhat cool outside. About 5 min in my overactive bladder started acting up, so I was really glad to see the Mac's just after the first mile. We stopped off for a quick break, then got back to running. The time was flying by and I was in charge of calling out the walk breaks, but I kept missing them because the time was moving so quickly. We were all keeping pace really well together and this was turning out to be a slightly faster long run for me. I think Giovanna is actually much speedier than us, but she just wanted to be out running with someone and wasn't too worried about the pace. At 5 miles in I scarfed an espresso Hammer Gel down. Yum, that thing was actually good! Definitely my most favourite flavour and brand so far. We finished the route leaving the big hill for the end and we all powered through it. I felt so strong running up that hill! We had about 7 minutes left to go to meet Karen's 2 hour request so we recovered on some flat ground and finished up with 10.7 miles in 2:00:03. Afterwards we all went to Primal Grounds for some delicious food and more chatting. It made for a really great morning, so major thanks to Karen for organizing the group run! Giovanna is moving to Nashville at the beginning of August and she's keen to get as many runs in before leaving Calgary as possible. She's even volunteered to keep my company on my 18 miler this weekend! I rounded the day out with some hot yoga, a massage, and my share of three dozen oysters and a fantastic bottle of wine. That is my idea of a fantastic day..!

I did what?

Okay, so first off....what a week...what a weekend! I am pretty happy with how much I did this week as, for me, I feel like I accomplished quite a bit. Here's the summary for the weekend:

Saturday:
I had a 9 mi LR on the schedule so I zoomed down to Glenmore Reservoir to run a loop before it got too hot out. (I know, you've heard me complain about the snow...now the heat... It got up to 30 deg C (86 deg F) yesterday.) I got into such a great rhythm that I didn't want to lose that by running 9:1 intervals so I wound up going for 19:1 instead. I felt really strong the whole way, which I am sure is due to some of the cross training I've been doing. I wound up running into a friend as she was finishing up her run so we had a chance to run together and chat for about a 0.5 mile or so. It was a terrific run!
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I had signed up for a 4 pm hot yoga class, but at the end of the day the nice weather called my name and I wound up spending the afternoon on the patio at the Rose and Crown, enjoying some Velvet Fog. Yum...

Sunday:
It was time to make up for that missed hot yoga class! I went for a 10:00 am class, with the same really intense instructor as on Wednesday night. Boy, what a difference fresh legs make! It was still a great challenging class. We really stretched out our legs and worked on lower back strength as well.
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In the afternoon Neil and I rode out from my house to check out my commute to downtown. I think I managed to find a route that met my three criteria fairly closely. It was mostly downhill, on pathways or quiet residential streets for the most part, and it avoided roads that would chew up my tires. The ride downtown is about 12 miles or so and took just under an hour. I can probably knock a few minutes off because at times the pathways were really busy and it was difficult to pass people and keep a good speed up. We met up with a friend part of the way there, and continued on to Eau Claire to take a well deserved break at the Barley Mill's patio. Afterwards we all split off in different directions and I was back on my way home. The way back has some pretty good uphills, and it was really windy to boot. I was pretty impressed that I was only about 10 - 12 minutes slower on the way home with all of that.
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So the verdict on the biking from home to work? Definitely doable, but with all the major uphills to contend with, it is probably better to not try this on days when I have boot camp or high mileage planned.
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And well, just because I'm happy with all of my hard work this week, here are my final numbers for workouts:

Running: 21 mi
Biking: 49.23 mi
Hot Yoga: 3 sessions - 4:30:00
Bikini Boot Camp: 2 sessions - 3:00:00

That's pretty good volume for me!

My apologies

My apologies on having nothing new to report. Okay, I went to Fit Ball on Monday, but otherwise I don't have any running activity to report. And I don't even have anything that great that is non-running to talk about. My life is work right now, so despite the fact that I have my running gear sitting in a bag underneath my desk I highly doubt that I will get any running in until this weekend. Saturday I have a running date at Glenmore Park (in the daylight this time, thank goodness) so that will be the site of my 8 on the 8th run. Sunday I'm still aiming for 7 miles on my own before running to catch as many elves as I possibly can at the Catch the Elves 10K.

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Okay, break time over....back to work...

A Tale of Errant Wildlife - Part 2 - Goldilocks Enters the Woods

Alternative titles for this post:
- My Sunday LLR of 15 miles
- Proof that Runner Gal can act her true hair colour (um, which is blonde by the way)
- Things to not do on a long run
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I realize this is a bit out of order as it has now been many days since my 15 miler. Originally I wasn't going to post about it, but aw...why not... My parents will probably give me a stern what for after they read this.
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I awoke on Sunday morning to snow falling in Banff. Brrr...the promised cold front had come through. After breakfast it was time to hit the road and get back to Calgary. The roads through the mountains were kind of gross and at one point we saw a couple of cars in the ditch. Thank goodness I wasn't driving. After a trip to the south side of town to pick my fur balls up from kennel, then a trip back all the way up north to head home, have a bite to eat and change - all of a sudden it is about 2:30 when I leave my house for this run. I really wanted to run Glenmore Reservoir as it had been quite a bit of time since I had been out there before. I wasn't really thinking about the time change and how it would affect things, but I knew I was in for a 3 hour run. That I started at 3 pm. And it gets dark at 5:30 pm. And big portions around the reservoir are not very populated...
Anyhow, it is -1 deg C (30 deg F), overcast and with the odd errant snowflake falling in the sky. I'm bundled up in tights, warm socks, a short sleeve base layer and a really warm and fuzzy outer layer. I run along the north side of the reservoir and through the detour around Glenmore Trail. Since the loop around the reservoir is 10 miles I decide to deviate along the Elbow River pathway for a bit to get the extra miles in. This takes me up to Stanley Park and I turn around. Given my previous creepy experience around Lindsay Park a bit farther north I'm not too keen to run any farther than this portion since I'm still in a pretty swanky area of town. On my way back I'm running into the wind and feeling the cold and all of a sudden I cross paths with a runner in shorts. Now that is hard core..!! As I return to the Glenmore pathway I think about whether I should cut things short, take a 12 mile run and just head back to the car. Naw...I really want to get this 15 miler done so I continue along the Glenmore loop - past Rocky View Hospital (where a bear entered the ER back in September) and past Heritage Park. All of a sudden I'm at Glenmore Landing with about 3 or 4 miles left to go and I realize how little light is left in the sky. Once you pass Glenmore Landing you have a stretch of quiet area, then the yacht club, then the most desolate area of all through the forest at Weaselhead Flats. I'm starting to get scared. I decide to cut out my walk breaks to try and make it back to my car a little faster. Forget how far I'm running now, I just want to be done and soon. I can barely make things out in the dark as I hit Weaselhead flats. Yup, I'm really scared now. All of a sudden I stop in my tracks at the yellow sign directly in front of me. "Bear sighted in area - use caution." What do I do now? I'm 2 miles from my car... I call up my brother....no answer... I call DGB and when she answers I start crying on the phone. D asks if there is a date on the warning sign...nope. She advises me that bears naturally want to stay away, but the worst thing you can do is startle a bear that is eating or protecting a cub. She asks if I want to keep her on the phone while I finish my run. I decline, but she advises me to make lots of noise while I'm running so that in the event that this bear is still in the area I don't startle it. She advises me to sing and makes me promise to call her as soon as I'm at my car. Now seriously...I'm no singer at the best of times and any songs I know have immediately vacated my brain so I'm belting out a pretty tuneless "dum dee dee dum dum" type of song punctuated by the odd "yo ho, yo ho" from Pirates of the Caribbean. The lack of light is playing tricks on my eyes as I think I see things moving in the trees around me and I jump at any sound that isn't my voice or my footsteps. There are patches of snow on the pathway and I'm amazed that I didn't take a tumble at any point in time. After crossing a bridge I hear footsteps behind me and I swear that if it were possible to be any more scared at this point in time I sure was. The pursuer shouts "on your left!" and I have a moment of relief because thank goodness - here's company in the form of another runner! I say hi and he comments that it sounds like I'm having a lot of fun on my run. "No sir," I say, "I'm just pretty freaked out about the bear sign." He mumbles something about at least not being surprised then if we should see one and he zooms right past me, full speed ahead. So much for company! I'm back to being on my own, singing, and running as fast as my legs can carry me after this long run. I was never so happy to see my car in my life. 15.37 miles. I will never be looking to repeat that experience again....

Running Epiphany

This morning I had 10 miles on the books so I attempted to get out to Glenmore Reservoir nice and early. It was still fairly chilly out when I started, which resulted in a bit of a fast start, but things were feeling good. When I made it to the dam over the reservoir I saw Instructor S's running group out for their 10K and 15K run so I caught up with them and chatted for a bit. Instructor S was asking how my shoulders were feeling from BBC on Thursday - still sore thank you very much. I mentioned that we probably did 200 push ups that night. S counted our push up reps after class . I was wrong....Instructor S said we did 250! I hung out with S and another gal for about a mile, and then it was time to break off. When I hit the 6 mi mark I reached the part of the pathway that is flat, ridiculously straight and totally open. Very boring. I normally really slow down in the part and I caught myself doing that again. I talked myself through it and knocked some time off the pace so things were feeling amazing by that point in time. The rest of the run went really well. I love it when the stars align and a great run results. I even cut some time off from when I last ran that 10 mi route around the reservoir.
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The pathway around the reservoir takes you past Rocky View Hospital. Every time I go past I am reminded of the Editors song....Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors. It rings very true.

10 miles = ow, ow, ow....

This morning I had my last long run before the Calgary Half Marathon next weekend, a 10 miler. This was a first for me - my longest distance so far! I went back out to Glenmore Reservoir again as I really like that pathway and the scenery around there. This time I started near the rowing club which was a pretty busy place for this Saturday morning. My whole way around the reservoir I could hear the rowers out there which was really neat. It was really starting to warm up, and not quite half way through my route I was running low on water. Luckily I was right near the Glenmore Landing shopping center, so I took a break to run into Good Earth and replenish my fluids. I discovered that I really seem to dislike running on flat ground for an extended period of time. I noticed that I would really slow down on these portions. Of course the downhills are speedy, but I'm really starting to find the uphills really motivating and I made some good time on most of the climbs. I felt like I really pushed my pace today, and as a result I averaged 00:17/mile faster than last week's long run. I'm not sure if I could have sustained this another 3.1 miles, but I guess we'll see what happens next weekend. I went with the Lemon-Lime Clif Shot Bloks this time around. The flavor was slightly better than the black cherry, but I think I still want to try a few more flavors out. However for next weekend I'm going to stick with a flavor I've tried since I know it agrees with my stomach!

For the first time in awhile I could tell I was going to be sore after this run. Last week I felt great, but even with a bunch of stretching I knew I was going to stiffen up in the car on the way home today. And yup, I was right! I should have come home and gone with an ice bath, but I opted to eat and have a nap instead even though I knew this wasn't the best option...and as a result I'm definitely a bit stiff. On days like these I wonder why I thought a 4 level split townhome was a good idea....!

Sunday's 9 mile run, and no yoga!

This morning I got up nice and early and headed down to Glenmore Reservoir for my 9 mi run. It was still nice and cool out, and somewhat overcast when I started. The run honestly felt great. The scenery along the way is beautiful - water views, running through forest, running along a dam...amazing. Also there are some great elevation changes along the way to keep things interesting. About halfway through the run I lost some shade cover and the sun came out and it was warm... I slowed down a bit at that point, but otherwise I felt like I ran really great. The best part of the run was just approaching the 8 mi mark I had a hill to climb - 128 feet in 0.2 mi. I ran really strong to the top, keeping a great pace and barely slowing down. Once I crested the hill I ran the final mile back to my car the entire way - no stopping for walk breaks - I felt that good.

I also tried out a pack of black cherry Clif Shot Bloks. I can't say I loved the flavor that much, but from an ease of consumption point of view I really liked it. I found the Sport Beans a bit trickier to eat, but I was able to run and chew the Blok at the same time, so it didn't impact my time too much. I noticed that they make Margarita, Pina Colada, and Cola flavors, all which aren't available here (at least I haven't seen them yet). I'll have to look for them out on my next trip to the US.

On a disappointing note, I showed up for my yoga workshop, but sadly my instructor did not. I didn't hear that class was canceled, and I was really looking forward to it. Here's hoping I get a refund...