Off to Montreal until Tuesday

... and there will be no running no jogging no anything other than work and stuffing myself with actual to goodness REAL bread, pastries and other assorted carbs that are at their best only in my home town (and possibly Paris... who knows?)

I may also partake of Quebec's national dish:



Have a great weekend everyone!

A pox on all yer soccer balls and cleats...

It turns out that my beloved high school running track has one disadvantage.

And its a biggie. Enter the boys' soccer team, stage right.

Grr.

Now, running with other people present at the track is not a huge issue for me anymore. I don't mind the occasional dog walker, family with toddlers or fellow jog/walker encroaching on my territory.

An entire team of athletic high school aged boys watching me trot around while they finished practicing the world's most idiotic sport? That's a whooooole other matter.

So I had to improvise another street route.

Improvisation, is not one of my strongest skills as you tell from the meagre amount I travelled (I *did* think I was running/walking further than I did... if that counts for anything).

DAY 36 REPORT

start time: 7:15 pm
Total Distance: 1.2 miles

Total Ran (approx): 0.8 mile (yikes yikes yikes!)
Total Walked (approx): 0.4 mile (yikes yikes yikes!)

Legs - way better than Monday
Feet - sore
Lungs - average
Stomach - fine
Sweat level - high

Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow

So I know I'm pushing this whole definition of "running" and my being a "runner". There are a ton of people reading this who are regularly running 5, 10, 15 even 20 miles in a single outing. Meanwhile I'm here babbling on about my silly mile and a quarter or less distances.

With that disclaimer, I still need to be able to say the following.

Tonight = ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow

It's been a while since I jogged twice in two nights. After the last two great sessions, I knew I was living on borrowed time.

As I write this my legs are still in extreme pain and I am resorting to tylenol.

DAY 35 REPORT

start time: 8 pm
Total Distance: 1.6 miles

Total Ran (approx): 1.1 miles
Total Walked (approx): 0.5 mile

Legs - really reall really bad
Feet - fine
Lungs - wheezy
Stomach - fine
Sweat level - enormous

I think I'm on to Something Here...

Another Sunday night, another great jogging session at the track.

How did I get by for so long on the mean streets without the red gravel dust on my shoes, the playful dogs on the infield, the lack of shin pain in my... er... shins?

I've no idea.

I probably could have kept going for longer tonight than the simple 1.25 miles I ran/walked, but tomorrow I have another session planned and I didn't want to go crazy tonight and compromise Monday.

DAY 35 REPORT

start time: 7:30 pm
Total Distance: 1.9 miles

Total Ran (approx): 1.25 miles
Total Walked (approx): 0.65 mile

Legs - good
Feet - fine
Lungs - not as "clear" as on Wednesday, but relatively good
Stomach - fine
Sweat level - medium

In Goes the Good Air.... Out Goes the Bad Air

Tonight was one of those nights where things just seemed easier than normal. The absolute best kind of jogging session!

I tried paying very close attention to my breathing - doing the breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth technique I read about online. It seemed to help, I wasn't gasping for breath like I normally do.

I have two work events I must go tomorrow and Friday night until late, so running will be out of the question. OA and the girls are away this weekend, so I think I may make Saturday my next scheduled jog.

DAY 34 REPORT

start time: 8:15 pm
Total Distance: 1.5 miles

Total Ran (approx): 1.1 miles
Total Walked (approx): 0.4 mile

Legs - very sore
Feet - fine
Lungs - surprisingly good
Stomach - fine
Sweat level - medium

Amorous Dogs and Mini-Drill Sergeants

It was an absolutely, drop dead gorgeous evening - high teens, clear skies, light breeze. The whole she-bang.

There had to be at least six people on the track tonight, with a further dozen or so dogs and their owners milling about in the infield.

One particular male golden retriever kept me entertained with his less than graceful attempts to... er... make friends with some of the lady dogs present. Let's just say there was one very embarrassed dog owner who kept having to intervene...

Also of interest tonight was a mum running with her two children - one of who looked to be about six who ran beside her and another 1 or 2 year old who sat in his jogging stroller the entire time yelling "faster mummy, faster!" If only we all had a drill sergeant like that on our team!

DAY 33 REPORT

start time: 7:15 pm
Total Distance: 1.7 miles

Total Ran (approx): 1.1 miles
Total Walked (approx): 0.6 mile

Legs - only sore at the end
Feet - fine
Lungs - bad, but better than yesterday
Stomach - fine
Sweat level - medium

Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered

I just finished watching the movie version of the Tony Award winning play "The History Boys"
for the third time this week with OA. It brought back a ton of great memories from the summer of 2006 when I saw the same incredible actors from the movie with my friend Andrea5000. We took advantage of free accommodations through her paid-for dorm room at Columbia (where she was pursuing her Masters' degree) and bought tickets to every play and musical we could possibly get into over a five day period.

It remains my best vacation ever. And a lot of it had to do the unbelieveable artistry of Alan Bennett, the playwright as well as the director and performers of the History Boys...

For a show filled with great lines, this is perhaps the best. Warning - language!

Oh an this is also a great scene (and well sung!)

Oh but this is a running blog isn't it?











Okay... running.

I went out tonight for a very mediocre session on the track. So mediocre that there is very very very little to talk about.

Blergh.

DAY 32 REPORT

start time: 7:00 pm
Total Distance: 1.5 miles (woot! the 2 mile total distance mark finally broken!)

Total Ran (approx): 11 mile
Total Walked (approx): 0.5 mile

Legs - sore
Feet - fine
Lungs - really bad
Stomach - stitchy
Sweat level - medium

1.3 mile cha-cha

Unless my records are incorrect, tonight marks my longest run yet (puny as that may be to everyone who reads this blog).

And so... the 1.3 mile cha-cha:

*jog jog cha cha cha wheeze wheeze cha cha cha ow ow wheeze cough jazz hands collapse*

Lots of people at the track again tonight. One particularly annoying guy decided to run clockwise versus the rest of us counter-clockwisers. I may have a new pet peeve. Stupid clockwise guy.

DAY 31 REPORT

start time: 8:15 pm
Total Distance: 2.15 miles (woot! the 2 mile total distance mark finally broken!)

Total Ran (approx): 1.3 mile
Total Walked (approx): 0.85 mile

Legs - ow
Feet - fine
Lungs - about ready to collapse entirely
Stomach - stitchy in the middle
Sweat level - enormous

Welcome Back Track!

I have been very bad about updating this blog over the last week - unfortunately, there has not been any running to report on until this evening's work.

I had a Wednesday and Friday night jog planned.

Excuses drumroll please:

1) I forgot the fact that I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for Wednesday night (at 8pm... what doctor takes appointments that late other than mine?) so I couldn't run then. I did walk home along my normal street route which should have something in the positive column.

2) Thursday was then going to be the make-up jog night, but it ended up being the grossest, hottest and humidest day in the last month. Not happening.

3) Friday night then was also humid, but had high winds and lots of rain to boot. I left my house, being the trooper that I am, only to have a giant tree branch crash down from my neighbour's front yard and land directly on the sidewalk I would shortly have been on. Not happening x a million.

4) YESTERDAY night could have been a double make-up jog night, but I had friends coming in from out of town and had to stay home drinking margaritas with them. I HAD to. They would have tied me to the deck chair if I had resisted (which, being a good friend, of course I didn't)

Which brings me and my excuses to tonight.

The local high school track where OA and I started our jogging work back in May is finally open again to the public.

Hip Hip Huzzah!

I took my lazy bum-self over there at around 8pm after watching a lovely lovely lovely men's US Open Championship match. Novak Djokovic is my new Serbian pretend boyfriend after this post-quarter final impersonation series. Very funny stuff.

The run itself was pretty good. My doctor prescribed me a low dosage asthma controlling steroid which I have been taking regularly the last few days. I'm not sure if my improvement tonight was as a result of the meds or the flatter, more absorbent track surface.

Regardless, it was very nice to be back out a running (and the track was incredibly popular given that it was a Sunday evening - two walkers, a dog, a fellow jogger and some people doing tai-chi!)

DAY 30 REPORT (milestone alert - milestone alert!)

start time: 8:00 pm
Total Distance: 1.6 miles

Total Ran (approx): 1 mile
Total Walked (approx): 0.6 mile

Legs - tight here and there
Feet - fine
Lungs - good
Stomach - stitchy
Sweat level - high

Woot!

Tonight's mini-run absolutely ROCKED!

True it was small - I tried out my teeny tiny 1 mile course again - but it managed to challenge me while not challenging me tooooooooo much. The perfect combo!

The temperature was a perfect 22 degrees celcius with low humidity and a nice solid warm breeze.

I have also changed my goal to mark the entire month I lost to the gallbladder removal. Instead of targetting running 100 miles by my 24th birthday on November 3, my new goal will be to run a cumulative 72 miles (or 24 - my soon to be new age - multiplied times 3).

DAY 29 REPORT

start time: 8:15 pm
1 mile

Total Ran (approx): 0.75 mile
Total Walked (approx): 0.25 mile

Legs - fine
Feet - fine
Lungs - asthma-tastic
Stomach - fine
Sweat level - low