I forgot to post last night

So.. I’ll do a quick post now.

I ran on the treadmill at the gym last night. My hip and leg have been hurting since the half on Sunday, so I thought I’d take it a bit easy run-wise and ran 5K on the treadmill. It felt good. The leg feels much better today. I’m looking forward to the 10K race this weekend, although, once again, it’s calling for rain.

Waterloo Half Marathon

This morning at 8:30 am, I started running the Waterloo Half Marathon. It was nice and rainy and it didn’t stop until after I was done. There was wind, there were hills, there was a muddy, puddly, almost pot-holey section near the end. I got a nice cramp in my side a third of the way through (it went away fairly quick) and my hip decided to start to hurt just past the half-way mark (I'm guessing my muscles were mad because of the cold).

It would have been a nice run had the weather been good, but I was really just miserable the whole time as I was wet and cold. I did not PB today. Not in the rain. Maybe next time.

Today’s Run:
Distance: Half Marathon (21ish km, 13.1 miles) – I finished in 2:01
Weather: 7 C, rain, wind 17 km/h

ENDURrace down.. Waterloo Half Tomorrow

Today I ran the 8K portion of the ENDURrace 2 part series. Last Saturday was the 5K and tonight the 8K. I had decided that tonight I was not attempting to place, but was just going out to enjoy the run as I’m running the Waterloo Half Marathon tomorrow morning and didn’t want to tire out my legs today.

I finished the race in 42:22. Tomorrow’s the more important race. Hopefully it goes well.

Today’s Run:
Distance: 8 km
Weather: 15 C, cloudy, wind 15 km/h

Running before coffee

I ran first thing morning, before coffee. It took me about 10 minutes to figure out how to put the sleeves back on my jacket before I headed out.

Lesson Learned: I need coffee before I can function properly.

This Morning’s Run:
Distance: 5K
Weather: 1C, 30 km/h winds

Exam done. Back to Running.

So now that my exam is done, I can get back to running without feeling like I should be studying.

I didn’t go for anything super-long tonight as I don’t want to wear myself out too much this week. I have a half marathon on Sunday morning (and I actually have an 8K on Saturday evening as well) and I want to have as fresh legs as possible.

I also get to finally read my newest issue of Runner’s World today. It’s been sitting on the piano taunting me since it came in the mail, but I told myself that I couldn’t watch it until I was all done my exam. Tonight, before bed, it will be opened.

Today’s Run:
Distance: 5 km
Weather: 12 C, clear, wind 15 km/h

Quick run in an attempt to clear my head

I have an exam tomorrow. Because of this, I did not go for my long run yesterday and have been reading ever so interesting books and notes for hours on end over the last few days. Tonight, I attempted to study some more, but my head would have none of it. So, I put down the books and went out for a run. Just a short 20 minute run to get outside, get away from staring at the pages and to clear my head. Now, to attempt to read a wee bit before bed and hopefully pass my exam in the morning.

Today’s Run:
Distance: 3.7 km
Weather: 8 C, clear, 15 km/h wind

Race Season has Begun

I ran my first spring race today. It was a 5K, the first half of a 2-part series. The weather this evening was… well… not so nice. It was snowing. It was blowing. The snow was blowing sideways. It was on the chilly side, and the wind was quite strong. I wore gloves. It was the first time for gloves (not counting my run earlier today) since… well.. winter.

Even though the weather was not what we’d hoped, it is still April and you never know what to expect in April. Actually, that’s not true… you know to expect the unexpected.

My time wasn’t bad. I finished in 24:19, which put me 3rd in my age/gender group (actually got a 2nd place medal as the 1st person in my age group placed in top 3 overall female) and 12th overall female out of 179 female runners. I was hoping for a bit better time as I really want to get back into the 23 minute times (I’ve only been there once, but I liked it… my PB for 5K is 23:18), but I’m not training specifically for 5K distance.

I’m focusing on half marathon and 10K and hoping to break the 50 minute mark for the 10K this season. Next weekend I have an 8K and a half marathon and the following weekend a 10K. Wish me luck!

Today’s Runs:
Noonish run: 4 km, weather 5 C, bit of wind, a few snowflakes.
Evening 5K race: 5 km (obviously), weather 3 C, windy, snowy, etc.

Night-time Run

I was studying for my exam next week and didn’t get out for my run until a bit later this evening. I headed out shortly after 10pm and got to enjoy the nice warm evening with not too much traffic. Definitely enjoyable. I love nice quiet warm night-time runs.

Today’s Run:
Distance: 8 km
Weather: 17 C, warm breeze

Fresh Shoes

I started a new pair of shoes tonight. What a great feeling. I knew my old shoes were just about done a few weeks ago, but didn’t realize just how worn they were until I put on the new pair today. I now have happy feet again.

Today’s Run:
Distance: 5 km
Weather: 9 C, clear, wind 13 km/h

My first snot rocket

I feel like it was almost a right of passage.

Today, I blew my first snot rocket. I’ve been running for 5 or 6 years and it took until now, which is kind of crazy. I had a bug fly up my nose, so, it was necessary.. and it a way it was kind of liberating. I was in the woods at the time, so it seemed only natural.

Today’s Run:
Distance: 20 km
Weather: 15 C, sunny, wind 24 km/h

Lottery Day

Today, the New York Road Runners held the lottery drawing for positions in the ING New York City Marathon. For the first time, they did a live video feed of this. I attempted to watch the video, but I was unable to get onto the site. I guess too many people were trying to watch.

I did log into the site at 12:30 pm, as instructed, to see if I had been chosen. The message that I saw was this:

Marathon registration status: Not accepted

So.. no NYC Marathon for me this year. I’ll try again next year and maybe, just maybe, I’ll get in.

Today’s Run:
Distance: 8 km
Weather: 14 C, light rain

River Run (post 2)

As promised, here are the photos I took on my phone while running yesterday.

This first photo was taken along the Long Sault Parkway, which connects a series of islands in the St Lawrence River.

This next section of trail essentially went in the middle of the river with water on both sides. The land with the trail on it was only about 3m wide.

 

I saw 3 deer during my run. Here’s the one I took a photo of, but you can barely see it. Lack of zoom doesn’t make for good deer photos.

Shortly before the end of my run, the sun was setting. It looked beautiful, so I snapped this photo as well.

River Run

Since I was in Eastern Ontario for Easter weekend, I thought I should take advantage of some the close proximity to the St Lawrence River.

I knew that there were some paths and trails along the river, so last night I looked up some maps online and found the Waterfront Trail. I wanted to run approximately 20 km today and wanted to make it as interesting/pretty as I could, so I decided to start at Long Sault and work my way to Upper Canada Village.

It was a great run. I started a bit later in the day than I had planned, but I still finished just before it got dark.

I had my phone with me and took a few photos (not great quality of course as it was just my phone, but still something to look at). I'll post some photos and a bit more detail about the run tomorrow.

Today's Run:
Distance: 20.5 km
Weather: 18 C at the start of the run, 14 C at the end; wind 13 km/h

I had company!

This morning, my nephew Brayden kept me company for the first portion of my run. He's trying out for rep soccer this year and was given instructions by the coach to get out and run, so for the first time in a LONG time I had company. I definitely enjoy running on my own, but to have a running buddy from time to time is quite nice as well.

The photo in this post was taken by my husband at the end of my run just as I was returning to my parents' house. It was a great morning for a run.

Today's Run:
Distance: 6 km
Weather: 22 C

Country Running

It's been a while since I've run in the country and it's also been a while since I've run in 27 C heat. Well.. today was the day for both. I waited to run until 6:30 pm today so I had a nice evening run. I brought my headlamp with me so that I could see and be seen after the sun went down and also my red turtle light to increase my visibility from behind.

It was a nice evening for a run, fairly calm and not a lot of traffic. I enjoyed myself, but kind of forgot how long it seems to get anywhere due to the large gaps between houses aka large fields. I ran around my parents' "block" which is just under 14 km. 2 of the 4 sections of road are approximately 5 km, while the other two are around 2 km each.

I was glad I brought the headlamp because it started to get dark when I was about two thirds of the way around. It was my first time using the headlamp for running and I must say, it was more comfortable than I expected. I will most certainly use it again.

Today's Run:
Distance: 13.75 km
Weather: 27 C with a bit of a west wind.

Long weekend, here I come!

It is now officially Easter weekend. I’m even taking Monday off work this year, so I get an extra long weekend, which is fantastic. I get to spend time with family, go for runs in the country, spend more time with family, and enjoy the fabulous weather. Excellent.

Tonight’s Run:
Distance: 5.5 km
Weather: 16 C (and I ran at 10pm, so that’s pretty fantastic for April 1st!)