A Touch Of The Runs!: Just the end of April/ start of May log

Monday 28: 10 k recovery/ easy run. Somehow dodged rain slivers of rain clouds unloading on the pathways. Not so with the wind. Slapped in face by the drawstrings of my hood, like a hyper version of the Monty Python fish slapping dance.

Tuesday 29: Cometh the sunny warmth, Cometh the fair weather runners. This started off with someone from work I'd introduced to the google pedometer map tool.

Later on during this 10k easy run, the fastest runner I know, Adam, nearly got flattened (or so it seemed) and simultaneously another co-worker said hi, later asking "what were you laughing at?"

Many at work were expecting to see me, though I must admit I did return a few greetings not immediately recognizing the other runner(s).

Feeling quite good, I got home to my usual core/ weights workout in the basement. Being my second workout of the day gives it an endurance element, and I do need to drag myself through the last 20 minutes. Final challenge of the day is not eating dinner too quickly.

Wednesday's strength run - long intervals at 4:15-4:20/ km pace went well. I probably did my 2x21min too fast, but strength and speed are 2 good vital signs I'm getting recently.

Calgary Marathon medal and shirt reveal came later on, once again both getting better each year.

The medal will triple as a bottle opener and belt buckle. Good bling value, though perhaps bending over to pick something up will be a bit challenging given it's size.

The gong is a great touch, may induce singing Kool & The Gang's "Jungle Boogie".

Thursday, and the month of May begins. Strange to have the marathon June this time, still the one month countdown has begun. The only day without a run, my core/ weights workout still managed to stage a few minor strange events. I bumped into my ex-boss for the first time in over 2 years.

After all the hip abduction, single-leg deadlifts, lunges, squats, etc., I came out of the shower to see a lady in the changing room.

My sunglasses went missing during my workout, but I probably left them on top of the locker. I was going to buy a new, less clunky pair anyway. Maybe it was meant to be?

Back to super-chiroman: from the increased toe pressing on the left has come other stresses on the left calf. I have to concentrate on rolling the left foot properly, and it should work out. More tape, this time with branding to make me look like a racing car.

One odd thing: for most of my life, my left foot has been a centimetre longer than my left, and my left leg has correspondingly been longer than my right. This had been changing over the last 2 months. At times they've been the same length, then the left was shorter (probably as a consequence of the calf problem affecting the hip), now the same length again. 3 months of running 6 days a week is leading to an overall rebalancing?

So sponsored, Friday May 2nd was a 15.5 k marathon pace run. The next 3 Fridays will be 17k. It was start of a window of bad weather, no colder than -3, but messy with rain and snow. Good speed throughout, just yucky weather.

Saturday, time for gym and 16k run home. Messy and slushy in places, with trees bombing me with snowballs. The snow melted on most of the pathways, so not too bad, just mildly annoying. Pleasingly, legs lost none of their speed and didn't stiffen at the end.

Sunday was a 16k run. My new sunglasses have so far only been used to stop snow getting in my eyes. Sunday was however better than Saturday, apart from a tree dropping a snowball and me kneeing it up to go "pooof" in my face like a cheap magic trick. For the second time I ran past a friendly lady asking everyone "hey, you running Calgary?" An emphatic "yes" and grin each time.