Mid-month, plus four

Over the first eighteen days of this month, I've been out for twelve runs for a total of 951.o7. Another 210 minutes of recovery walking, for a February 1st to 18th total of 1161.07.

Weekend runs are now sneaking back up over three hours, which means I can stop, guilt-free, at one of the many convenience stores on the river path for a bottle of Gatorade and a box of chocolate almonds. Hey, I gotta keep my energy up, even at 7:00am.

Hot off the presses

Undaunted by -19 and plenty of snow underfoot, Deis finishes his first ultra, demolishing the 52km in a downright sprinty 5:51. Now on to the good stuff - a few weeks of guilt-free gluttony and plenty of rest. Outstanding work, J!

Who wears short shorts?

I wear short shorts. Starting this morning. Hopefully both winter and the winter running pants are done for the year. The humidity is starting to creep up, which may mean some spring showers soon.

I seem to have settled into a nice routine this month. Four runs, one of them long, a day to do some arm-pumpin', sweatband-wearin' walking for recovery, a few trips to the gym for weights, and two days off to make sure the mighty Achilles doesn't get agitated again. Weekday runs done between 4:45 and 5-ish minutes/km, and the long weekend run up around 5:30/km. The plan is to post numbers here at mid- and end-month. History has shown, however, that I am much better at making plans than following through with them [see: scuttled attempts to learn Russian, become a veterinarian or the Crown Prince of Denmark, grow my fingernails longer than a metre, and the like].

January numbers

January was a cautious but successful return to running after time off with the dodgy wheel. Since I started back on the 12th, I ran twelve times on eleven different days, for a total of 653 minutes and 55 seconds. Deanna and I have also just started to pencil in recovery walks for the day after our weekly long run. If you have ever had the good fortune to walk with Deanna, you'll know a few things: she is a fantastic conversationalist, an incredibly kind spirit, and her conception of 'gentle walk' differs from the rest of ours -not for the faint of heart or the Birkenstocked. So I'll add the 120 minutes of 'walking' we did last weekend, for a grand total of 773.55.

My heel feels fine, so I'll try to up the average time spent on my feet in February. As for pace, I haven't really tried to get back under 4 minutes 45 seconds per km, and seem to have found a comfortable pace in and around 5 minutes per km. I'll work to maintain this pace as I increase the distances covered.

In SBRC news, I just heard from our lone Middle East Chapter member, and am excited for Matthew as he readies for the Madrid Marathon in April. From the Homeland [Mountain] Chapter, Jason will be doing his first ultra this month in Calgary. If he runs as well as he looked like he could at Christmas, should make for a blazing time.