First Early Morning Winter Run

... The first of many. Realizing that I'd been making too many excuses, I went out and bought some waterproof trail runners, and bundled up yesterday to get out early. Read an article in RW about runners vs. cars, so grabbed what I had to stay visible. Had a few realizations/ revelations on the short (25min) run:

• While it's important to be visible to vehicles, maybe my mini-bike lights tied to my jacket at the hip, bouncing and swaying on strobe is not necessary on a well-lit street. It's also a little dizzying on the pathways and doesn't really help me see!
• I need to get some gaiters.
• Need to find my headlamp!
  
• Cold air hurts the lungs! But feels so good...
• I wonder if the neighbors really are growing drugs... (there's some speculation among the other neighbors, as these guys are renting, leave their garage door open 24/7, and have vehicles coming and going all the time. They just towed away a burnt-out SUV that was parked halfway on their lawn. Yes, burnt out-- the thing started on fire last Saturday night, which is a good reason not to leave it running...)
• These new shoes are pretty great!
• I need to do this more often.

Between moving (Oct 1), the New Job (technically it's been just over a year now, but still feeling a little lost) and the training for said job (which just wrapped up with twelve-18 hour days over the first two weeks of December), I've been knocked off my training and blogging.

Signed up for UCTC again, btw.

3

Whatta Week - Recovery and Moving!

After hobbling around for a few days, the legs came back. Didn't really find time to work out though- because we MOVED this week! Yes, no more Fish Creek Park (at least, not on a regular basis). We now have our first house (very excited, but very scared all at the same time).

Sunday was moving boxes (kinda sore from the race, but it was good to move around), Wednesday was the big move out, and Thursday was move-in. We had tons of help from family on both sides--the brother-in-law even took the day off on Thursday to help move all our stuff in, and he was a workhorse! I also had my engineer brother help us pack up the truck. He worked one summer for a high-end moving company here in town, and I must say, he's still got that "spatial awareness"... the tetris skills to put everything together. Lotsa help from my mom and dad, Nicole's sister, and even my parents' good friends came to help put stuff away. Awesome!

Amidst all the projects that come with a new house (it's only a year old, no landscaping, still decorating, etc) I did find time to go for a run (24:10). The pathways in the community are pretty good, but limited as it's still a construction zone, and they aren't connected to the larger network. Which sucks, because it means that to get a longer run in, I either have to do laps, or drive somewhere. Here's a map of the area (GoogleMaps doesn't even show it yet)

At least now we have room to put a couple of spin trainers in the basement. Which is vital, because I JUST SIGNED UP FOR IRONMAN 70.3 CALGARY!!!!

My First Half Marathon - Melissa's

Did anyone get the number of the truck that hit me?

It's the day after the longest I've ever run. 22km - in Banff. And I hurt. A lot. Calves, hammies, quads are all protesting the abuse, the lactic acid buildup. But it was worth it.

I'd decided it would be more of a training run than anything else- after all, no matter my time, it would be a PR. I'd use the run as a butt-kicker, to get my training kick-started again. It's been a while since I last posted, but July was okay for training, August was good, September was a lost cause. So I wasn't as prepared for Melissa's as I wanted to be.

Dr. Dan kept hinting that I could choose to do the 10k instead, and if I wanted to do that, then he'd drop down to that distance, too. But I said no-- I was determined to do the half marathon distance. Well, on race day, Dan decided to drop to the 10k anyway.

It turned out great, though. I enjoyed running by myself; for about the first 3km. That's about when I heard someone's Garmin beep at them, made a comment about it, and ended up running with a lovely lady from Magrath for the rest of the race. Angie and I chatted away, pulling each other along, encouraging each other, and just having fun. I paced her through the middle of the race, while I'm certain I would not have run at all in km 18-20 if she hadn't have been there next to me.

We were both proud of the fact that we only walked through the water stations in the last half- plus one 1-minute walk at about 20km. And, we both finished around the 2:15 mark, which of course was a PR for us both (it was her first 22k) and better than her goal!

Afterwards, I met up with Kim and Dan, and somehow managed to get food and water before I collapsed on the lawn to stretch. We then walked all over Banff, which kept me pretty loose. We even took advantage of the pool at the Banff Springs Hotel- they were staying there all weekend. A few kick sets, some floating, and some time in the hot tub felt amazing! The only thing that would have been better would have been an ice bath for my legs.

Official Result:

Gun Time - 2:17:37 Net Time - 2:16:39 Pace (min/km) 6:13  Jarrett Nixon 

Race photos and more on the hiatus later this week.