works of wanderlust

Category: fitness logs

  • head over feets, twelve

    October has been a bit of a fitness blur. I can’t seem to get it together to get in much swimming these days. Yeah, I know… the pool is only a twenty minute drive away, but twenty minutes each way plus the swim and the other dawdling around that and it seems like I need to set aside nearly two hours just for a swim with the local pool closed. Once a week is my low bar and I’ve been struggling to leap over that. Alas. So it goes.

    But I have been running.

    And lately, my fitness logs included…

    I had been promising that my days of Wednesday run club were over for a while during the span of my language classes (which were happening on the same night) but the class was cancelled this week so I haunted the run club for yet another six klick loop around suburbia at sunset.

    Thursday, we had good intentions and we met down on the south-side for an after-dark loop with some trails. LC caught his toe on a buckling bit of pavement, tho, and took a hard fall on his knees. So, PS and I ran back to the cars to get him a ride and that pretty much wrapped up our run early. We did have a solid two klicks before he fell, however, and running back to the cars we were making a fast clip to get it done fast. Overall, four klicks with a generous negative split on the return.

    Because of the Thursday evening events, I figured I’d better sneak in another run for the week. I drove downtown on Saturday morning for my eleventh Park Run (not so impressive but getting into the double digits I guess) and ran a sub-29 minute five klick. It was stupid chilly, tho, so I stood in the hot shower for longer than usual.

    Sunday was the last of our training runs before the race. We generally taper on the Sunday long run before a race, so we settled on an adventurous ten klick run into the river valley. It provided some generous hills getting in and out of the dog park, but it’s always a quiet and peaceful place to spend some time on a weekend. And some great views, too. I should really take the dog down there again before winter-proper arrives.

    I was back down in the dog park on Tuesday. Kim was planning a route for run club the next day through some of the single track trails and I think she wanted to get a gauge of the rolling grades and meandering tree roots right around sunset for a dozen people, so I joined her for a test run nearly exactly twenty-four hours before that run. We logged a 6-ish trail run (only the second time I’ve had my trail shoes on this year, sigh) and beat the sunset back to the cars. I missed the run the next day because I had my Japanese class, tho. 

    And then suddenly race day was upon me. I’m going to wax a little more now than I usually would in these posts. In the olden days I may have written a whole stand-alone race report, but really, there isn’t that much to write about a small local race on a chilly October morning. If you’ve been following these posts you know that I’ve been working myself up towards the Fall Classic 10 Miler, a sixteen kilometre road race and one of the last big-ish events in the city until we all reluctantly sign up for the Hypothermic Half in February.

    The Fall Classic has been running for 40 years. It was in fact the 40th anniversary year of the race and the medal we all got was designed around a huge number 40 at the centre. I last ran this race exactly ten seasons ago in 2015 and I always joke that it held the distinction of being a race I ran in which winter arrived half way through the course because, simply, the wind whipped up through the river valley that mild October day in 2015 and when I passed about the 10km mark the cool morning had turned into a sleeting storm. It was not so bad this year, but not much better. We had rain and a cold wind blowing up out of the river valley and onto the valley-adjacent boulevard that traces the bulk of the course.

    I have been a wee bit sick, too, this week. Fighting off a slate of autumn infections stirring up as a result of suddenly resuming all my indoor group activities and spending time indoors with people coughing and cross-infecting. I ran anyways and felt it at about 11-12km through the course.

    But I finished. Not a wonderful time, but about what I would have expected for not having raced a proper race (again, Park Run doesn’t count) in over a year (Edmonton half marathon pacer, August 2024) and feeling the cold and the rain and low-grade sinus infection.

    And like every other time I run a race with nothing else in the docket I woke up Monday morning a bit tired and a bit glad it was over again and a bit wondering what my next goal is going to be.  For now, I need to settle into the value of my rec centre pass, prepare for a couple weeks of vacation soon, and ponder how to keep fit over the winter… as usual.

  • head over feets, eleven

    The shoulder season has arrived in earnest. I don’t know if it will stick or if we’ll get a reprieve of warmish weather for the end of the month. Part of me would like it to be around 10C for my race at the end of October, but that might be wishful thinking. Whatever mother nature decides, she has shed her autumn coat and the leaves are now mostly rotting on the ground for the season. The autumn colours are gone once again.

    The last couple weeks I continued my training, in earnest…

    There was a stat holiday in the middle of the week on the last day of September and so we went for a long walk in the dog park on a Tuesday afternoon. I don’t usually make note of my walks here, else they might fill up every other entry being so numerous, but it is notable because the holiday seemed to have thrown off the rhythm of the week and delayed a couple other fitness activities. 

    Thursday I finally made my way back to a pool. As expected the temporary closure of the local pool has turned a quick swim outing into a cross-city adventure requiring planning and navigating rush hour traffic. My goal is to get into the water at least once per week, and when my local pool opens again in December I’ll try and work that back up to a triple. I logged 800 m and they started closing the lanes so I called it.

    Met the guys—RM and LG—for an autumn run through Mill Creek later that same evening. The weather is still holding. Sometimes the fall rolls through and gone in an afternoon, but we’re coming up on a week. I won’t complain and I’ll get out as often as I can in this vibe. We did a fast 6k and felt it.

    Another long walk filled my Friday. I hopped the bus to the Uni and started off on foot with naught but a sketchbook in hand. Over the course of about four hours of strolling through campus, the river valley, the legislature grounds and downtown I drew four pictures and logged about fifteen klicks on foot. 

    Sunday we met for two different runs. We were due to log fifteen klicks on our training plan, but also, we had signed up for a 5k “fun run” called Run for the Cure, a breast cancer awareness and fundraising event. So we met about an hour and a half early and logged a meandering ten klicks through the adjacent neighbourhood. Then we shed some people (who were not doing the fun run) and gained others (who were) and stood around in the cold for about 45 minutes until we set off for a jam-packed five klick not-a-race race. We celebrated with pho nearby. 

    And then I got sick. I spent three solid days prone on the couch and then was a little cautious about getting back into my groove.

    But with the race just two weeks out, I braved the sub-zero temps on Sunday morning (and dealt with the pain of not running for a whole week) and checked the sixteen klick long distance off my training list. It wasn’t fast, but it was filled with autumn colours.

    Tuesday I trekked back across the city for a swim. I can justify the drive because the pool is right beside the vet’s office and I needed to pick up a prescription refill (for the dog, of course) and gas is mysteriously about fifteen cents cheaper over there, which pays for my drive if I fill up over there. There’s a whole story about a thanksgiving altercation involving the dog wherein I wrenched MY shoulder. I swam just 500m because I was sore. But I swam.

  • head over feets, ten

    Autumn is probably my favourite season. The colours. The full nights sleep thanks to the sun setting at a normal time and the temperatures being cooler. The abundance of excuses to settle into a cozy quiet evening without feeling excessively guilty about squandering the summer.

    My running streak is over, which is a shame only because some people had just found out I was doing one and were congrats me on the effort… which I had to explain I had finished it and was happy with the foundation it gave me to ramp up towards my race and thanks anyways.

    But since I’m not running every day anymore, I had to focus on the quality of runs and not just the quantity, huh? That means starting the short but important build up to a confident ten miler distance.

    This last couple weeks I…

    Wednesday was just on the verge of too warm, but there was enough of a breeze that joining up with the Run Club for about six klicks in the evening was definitely a win. We ran a big suburban lap, complete with some unexpected elevation change in the neighbourhood. It had only been a couple days of rest, but it was my first post-streak run.

    I was having a bit of a recovery week so I didn’t get back out on the trails again until Sunday. It was our long run day, of course, and now that we’re officially “training” we cranked up our distance incrementally over the last weeks. I led the group on a 12km route into the autumn-toned creek valley and we tackled a few hills in the process.

    With Autumn arriving and the Kid’s birthday eating up a couple days worth of free time, I didn’t manage much for a couple days. But after some blood work on Wednesday morning I threw caution to the wind (rest your needle arm for two hours, they said) and drove to yet another new pool. I swam five hundred and some meters in Confederation pool, and tried out my new headphones underwater too.

    Our first run of Autumn happened a few hours later. I have other commitments (read: Japanese class) on Wednesday nights upcoming somy participation in future Run Club runs is up for debate. But I took advantage of this night off to join a trail-ish sunset run for nearly seven klicks in the chilly September air.

    Thursday, meeting again locally for a run from the local pub (for drinks after) we had to search out an alternative route to avoid following the same path we’d now taken two runs in a row previous. A bit of improvisation resulted in nearly seven klicks of suburban adventure… and then a beer and cheesecake. Running is so unhealthy these days. *sigh

    Sunday was another long run. The race is only about a month away at this point which means that I’ve been ramping up my distance for a couple weeks. The plan was to do fourteen klicks, but the plan was off a bit so we did an unplanned fifteen klicks. That’s alright, tho. Knowing we can do the distance is often as valuable as actually just doing it. And fourteen is better than fifteen.

  • head over feets, nine

    Training is whatever you make of it. I’m sure there are some strict rules for pros and people with hard core goals, but for a guy pushing fifty who’s been doing this running thing for nearly two decades, I’m still just making it up.

    I mention this because one of my current run crew pals is training for one of those “how many laps can you do in such and such a time” races. It’s in an old mine shaft in the mountains, and I suspect (because I’ve never done one of those) half of the training for that repetitive grind is mental. She logged twenty klicks yesterday doing sixty laps of (literally) the parking lot. And this is amazing if for no other reason than it is kind of min/maxing the whole training mentality, trying to be very analytical about check-boxing the training plan. And I hope it works. 

    But for me, lately, it has simply been getting time on feet—which I’ve been pretty poor at for the months leading into this latest foundation-building streak.

    It’s been a busy few days because of that… 

    I capped off the week with late-morning Friday run, finally getting a chance to try the new bone conduction wireless headphones I’d scored off the reward miles site. They are solid enough for my purposes, and waterproof for swimming. That will be my next big test. I logged about five klicks in the heat.

    Saturday I went and did Park Run. I started my streak with a Park Run two weeks back and probably would have ended it with a feeling-good sub-thirty 5k, but …

    Sunday was the annual Terry Fox Run in Red Deer so we drove down there to help out and participate. I mostly did the participating part, running (pretty much) two laps for a solid 9k run. I say “pretty much” because (a) the course was a too-short 5k out and back so I never would have hit 10k, and (b) when I was in sight of the start/finish/second lap, I had this feeling that my motivation was sinking enough to call it quits at, well, let’s just call it 4.8km, which is bad for a few reasons, not the least of which is it is short of my 5km minimum for a streak day, so I turned back a hair early and did a second lap without crossing the “official” line. But the whole thing was kind of an honour system race anyhow and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to muster much honour for a second lap if I strictly followed the made up rules anyhow.

    Speaking of streaks, I ran for sixteen consecutive days and logged about 100km in that span. I’m now at a crossroads because my work-back training plan for my race in October has me increasing distances starting next Sunday. This is a wee bit incompatible with the grind that is a streak, so I think I’m calling it today. I ran sixteen days in a row, started with a solid Park Run, ended with a Terry Fox Run, and logged a century. None too shabby. Now, as of Monday morning, time for a few days of rest (and hopefully some swimming) and I’ll get back at the training-proper for my October race.

    Reminder: Blogs are not a replacement for professional advice. Please read my note on safety and safe participation.

  • head over feets, eight

    I dug into the early week with an afternoon five klick run on Tuesday, squeezing in a neighbourhood lap before dinner time. I figured I’d get it out of the way and have my evening free and clear. It worked. 

    Wednesday was the usual Run Club meetup, and so I went to the drop in at 6pm and we did an out and back on the suburban asphalt (with a bit of off-road trail mixed in) and the weather wasn’t too hot but it was slightly uncomfortable at the upper ends of my safety range. We logged only about seven klicks.

    Thursday my streak continued and I organized a casual adventure run in one of the southside suburbs. We did a big lap down through the Windermere area, and had to double back for you-know-who showing up ten minutes late and then texting me. No problem. He did drive all the way across down in rush hour traffic for a run.

    Friday, I was feeling adventurous and up for an afternoon solo, so I drove down to the dog park and did some trail running across the river in the wilds.  I logged about six klicks on the flat wilderness run, which was a bit of an homage to RM who had started a hundred mile ultra that same morning down in the south of the province.

    RM was still running when I did my Saturday morning run around the neighbourhood again and logged a simple five klick lap. He would finish his 161km trail race after running straight through for 31 gruelling hours. I just got to brag that I’d hit day eight on my streak.

    Sunday the firesmoke was starting to creep back in a bit, though the air quality was only at a five so we met and ran nine klicks for my ninth day of streaking. I had anticipated a real slog, what it being the ninth day of a solid daily run, but I think I’m in a bit of high point on the streak right now and that nine klicks felt really, really good. I could have kept going—maybe even to my race distance.

    Monday I found myself back to the solo run life for a few days, and with a stretch of evening obligations needing to get my run in earlier in the day. I got out the door by 11am and did a respectable 6km lap around the neighbourhood, up near the grocery store and back along the freeway.

    Tuesday I was in a similar situation, but not wanting to repeat my route from Monday I took a reverso and started up the freeway path but took a turn the opposite way and looped up around the other grocery store for another 6km. It was the eleventh day of my streak and I’m creeping up to a total distance around 70 klicks for the span of it.

    I was back in the pool on Wednesday, but all the way across town. Needing to run an errand I took advantage of my morning proximity to a city rec centre and brought my gear to swim about thirty minutes. I gotta say, it’s a nicer facility than my home location—just a shame it’s a twenty minute drive down the freeway.

    Needing to continue my streak, I was back on the trails later Wednesday morning. Avoiding the monotony of just doing more laps around the neighbourhood, I drove closer to the trailhead of  the river valley trails and logged six klicks down and close to the dog park, including some great single track.

    On day thirteen of my streak, I was finally able to connect with real people again and we met for our regular Creek run. That whole meetup location started because of it’s location close to where The Kid had dance class, but now that she has moved on from her youthful extra curriculars the run meetup may need to adapt—or whatever. There were enough of us out last night that it’s hardly my decision anymore.

    Reminder: Blogs are not a replacement for professional advice. Please read my note on safety and safe participation.