Streaky

I usually take Fridays off running.

A little rest never hurt anyone, but the lack of it certainly has.

From Christmas Eve up until today, though, I ended up running straight through. A thirteen day streak isn't much compared to what some people choose to do (I have a friend who ran every day for more than 30 years), but since my running gait can best be described as "shambling along" and I'm rather - ahem - attractive to gravity, my poor old factory seconds body likes a little break from the pounding here are there.

..and some soft surfaces, please.

I had run my usual Saturday to Thursday - December 24th to 29th - and had every intention of taking a rest day on Friday the 30th. I'd put in a double on Christmas Eve in fairly nasty cold (it was -15c/5f with a windchill closer to -27c/-17f).

My wool neck gaiter froze solid as I ran down to the farmers' market that morning

We had a winter storm that had begun as rain, then turned to ice with a thick layer of sandy snow overtop that was absolutely beautiful, but took a lot of effort to run through.

Canadian beach running

It was fun not needing a headlamp for the second run after dark, though - the glow from the city reflecting on the cloudcover provided just enough light for a groomed trail.

Honestly one of my favourite things about winter

Christmas morning was still cold - it was -9c/16f - so the ugly sweater was worn over a jacket and I wore a second pair of mittens under my fleece ones with the sleigh bells stitched on for my first snowshoe run of the season!

Pre-burning Christmas dinner calories

Boxing Day brought a lovely cross-country ski with Tank, then another run through Narnia as the snow still remained firmly stuck to the branches in the more sheltered spots.

We so seldom get this sort of scene, and it's usually so fleeting!

The 27th brought another snowshoe run - trying to take advantage with a big warm-up in the weather predicted - in the new hat that Tank bought me for Christmas.

You can get your own - and any number of other hilarious running- and non-running-related items from Semi-Rad - here

Wednesday the 28th brought reality back for Tank: that poor fellow had to work, while I was lucky enough to have the whole week off between Christmas and New Year's. You'd think that would make it easy to get out any time I wanted for a run, but I actually missed almost all of the daylight while working on odds and ends that needed doing. With Tank out of town with our vehicle I couldn't make it to a trail, so just ran on the roads instead. Sound pretty dull, right?

Wrong.

The next morning was an early one, as I was making another trip into Mississauga to help out my mum: this meant I needed to be ready to leave the house with Tank by 7:30am, which is a terrible thing to pull on a human on holidays. Still, not only did I make it, but I actually got to explore a beautiful new trail as well!

The Sawmill Valley Trail is gorgeous!

I'd put in a decent amount of mileage in that 6-day block: almost 50km, which is more than I've averaged weekly in 2022. I had every intention of giving myself an easy day on Friday the 30th, which was also the one day of my holiday break I fully intended to do almost nothing at all: I had a new book I wanted to read, and just be a cozy lump in our lazyboy chair.

The universe had other ideas.

When we got home from Mississauga Thursday evening, we found our sweet kitty Esme in poor shape: our normally ravenous girl was refusing food and treats, vomiting foam, and hiding in our bedroom closet. Tank had to work on Friday, so I was home alone with her, fretting the whole time. Tank managed to get off work early, and I had phoned our veterinarian (who fortunately has fantastic hours), so we took our Shmoo for a checkup.

Several hundred dollars later, with Esme had been given subcutaneous fluids and an anti-nausea injection, then we went home to await bloodwork results.

The weather was awful: rainy and right around the freezing mark, as though the very atmosphere was crying for our poor girly. The anti-nausea meds must have worked, as she began to eat and drink again, and stopped hiding away from us. With her safely snuggled onto Tank's lap, I made the decision to head out: I was too agitated from worrying about her all day, and sometimes things make more sense when the stuff in my brain has been jostled around a bit.

So I ran.

New Year's Eve saw us stopping by the vet's office to pick up a new, specialized (and very expensive) food that was recommended for Esme's health: it seems as though she may have had a nasty attack of pancreatitis, which is something I'd wondered about for awhile as she has had periodic spells of poor health for most of the five and a half years she's been with us after we adopted her straight off the streets of Guelph in 2017. We also consented to an additional test on the blood sample they had taken to rule out some other issues, and brought home some more anti-nausea meds in case she needed them. She was back to her usual hungry girl self again, though certainly still moving a bit more slowly than usual.

Once Esme was snoozling away in a soft kitty bed, I got out for a run at Huron Natural Area, and had the stark realization that running through the sunset when there's no snow on the ground is a much different experience than when winter paints all the trails white.

I was moving pretty slowly toward the end as I hadn't brought a headlamp and could barely see when I was putting my feet

Out of habit - it was Saturday after all - I did a second run, this time with all the lights provided for me.

Waterloo Park puts on a show each December

There's a huge variety of light displays, some of which are animated

Some of which are free-standing

..and some of which invite interaction!

That was my last run of 2022, which gave me 2,188.2km/1,359.7mi for the year - a lot lower than usual, but some injury issues prevented me from doing much more, and I only ran once during the fortnight we were away in Scotland. Nevertheless, I'd put in almost 230km/143mi in December, so I wasn't slacking off at the end!

We'll call it cause for a small celebration

The new year got off to a decent start with 11-ish kilometers on a trail I hadn't run in some time.

I remembered it being slightly less swimmable

I was back to work on Monday the 2nd, but Tank had the day off, which meant I had a vehicle available! I took full advantage, fleeing my desk around 3pm to go soak up the last bit of sun that would shine for the next few days.

Soft trail, mild weather, and daylight - heaven!

The rest of this week has been nothing but dark, rainy, chilly night runs, though. As I plow through trying to catch up after the holidays plus the intensity that is month end at work, I don't think I've set foot out the door before 9pm Tuesday through Thursday.

Cement, pavement, dark, and drippy - it's like the polar opposite of Monday's trail joy

My right ankle is grouchy and I'm so very tired, but today I finally got my Friday off running today after 13 days and 102.8km/63.9mi in 15 runs. While an average of 6.86km/4.26mi per run is not much, it has certainly been enough to prove to me that I'm still not the right person for a long run streak, or at least not right now. 

Nonetheless, I made it through, and I hope you have survived your holidays unscathed as well!

Happy New Year everyone!

Now, if only we can convince the sun to come back..