On the run + weekend stuff

Monday, April 20, 2015

Now that the snow's finally melting and the temperature's above freezing, I've been getting outside for my runs lately and it feels SO GOOD. The past couple of weeks have been pretty perfect for running, and the first outdoor runs after a winter of dogging it out on the treadmill always feel amazing. And hard. The first outdoor run makes it shockingly apparent that three or four months on the treadmill set at zero incline is not the same as running outside. 


This weekend I had two good runs. Saturday morning, I did my long run, 20km this week. I figured out a loop around our neighbourhood that's exactly 10km to our door, so I ran that twice and stopped in between loops at home for a couple sips of water and bites of a banana. This run was surprisingly OK. I took a LOT of walk breaks, especially during the second loop, but still finished with a respectable 9:08/mile pace. Lately, I've been finding that listening to podcasts helps the time pass quickly, so I'll do an episode or two to get my run started and then bring it home with some tunes. 

Sunday was the Frostbite 5-Miler race, which was originally supposed to happen back in February, got delayed to March (due to weather) and got delayed again to April 19 (due to weather). Have I mentioned we had a terrible winter? This was my first five-mile race. It's a small local event capped at 250 participants. The start is a five-minute drive from home, so it was nice to not have to plan ahead and leave the house super early - I got there about half an hour before the start time and it took all of 30 seconds to pick up my bib, so I had plenty of time to kill beforehand. 

The course is described as "rolling hills" and I think that's accurate! Still waiting on the official times to be posted, but I think I finished somewhere around 41 minutes, and I came in 36th place overall, whatever that means :) At the end of the course I claimed my snowman medal (!!!) and a bowl of baked beans and an apple. The medal and the beans alone made this one well worth running! 

Usually I HATE race photos of me, but this is the one exception. I'm all smiles because I'd just passed Pete and Eli on the route - you can see them in the background :) Note to self - smile when you see the course photographer (there's a reason I'm not sharing any of the other race photos). 


I did other things this weekend other than running all day. I recovered from Saturday's long run with a lettuce-wrapped burger and some fries at Boom Burger after we toured the QEII lottery home. I made blueberry oat bars and baked popcorn shrimp (I recommend both recipes!) and watched some Downton. On Sunday afternoon, I took Rory for a walk and listened to the first episode of the Undisclosed podcast (not as great as Serial but it's interesting) and called my mom. Eli had his swimming lessons on Sunday as well, and no one shit in the pool this week. 

So, overall, a successful weekend. A lot of sunshine, 28 happy kilometres run, good eats, good times with the boys. A+. 

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3 comments

  1. Aww, I love that picture. :) Your A+ weekend is making my day!

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    1. Already counting down to the next weekend!

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  2. Good for you! You're really an inspiration!
    I can't imagine the feeling of pride during/after a run you've trained for, let alone the feeling you'd get seeing your family cheering you on. AWESOME picture!
    You're making me long for Friday. I live for weekends!

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