Smoked

 It's been a bit of a struggle lately

Feeling like it's all uphill

Between trying to push mileage up in a totally not panicked attempt to prepare for a really stinkin' long race that is now (*gulp*) next month and playing hockey a couple of times per week, the old body is taking a bit of a beating.

This is my "I just ran 13km, changed, then played an hour of hockey" face

I've also been trying to lift a little heavier while I don't have any immediately upcoming events.

Squats and deadlifts and walking lunges, oh my!

..and of course conditions outside haven't been helping. While it finally cooled off from that ridiculous heat at the end of May, June has brought something much more insidious.

..which does admittedly lead to some interesting sunsets.

While I know I've no right to complain compared to those who are losing their homes to the wildfires in Alberta, Quebec, and Nova Scotia, the smoke has been enough to give me headaches while just sitting at my desk in my home office. I'd close the windows, but without a central heat/air system (our house is...interesting) it's my only real source of cooling and air circulation as the sun heats the upper floor.

..which typically happens when the smoke smell is at its peak.

It makes my throat burn, too, when I'm out running. I try to go later in the day when the wind drops and offers a bit of reprieve.

But puffs of acrid air still persist into the night

As a result of all of this, I've been giving myself the grace to walk a lot more on my runs. It may not be the best thing for building fitness, but at least it's a bit gentler on my body and lungs as I approach peak mileage - more than I've run on a weekly basis since maybe 2019.

Is it enough? Only time will tell

I hope the smoke disappears soon, partly for my own comfort but mostly out of concern for those most at risk.

Not to mention all that beautiful forest

Today's rain has significantly reduced the smoke smell in the air, and hopefully more has fallen in those areas that need it most.

Though I hope they got more than the sprinkling we did

Hope you are all safe from the fires' destructive impacts - to both property and health.

..and that we all have lovely forests in which to play.

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..

Pressing on

Friends, I'm tired.

The Scotland Saga will just have to wait

I've just finished off the most bonkers week at work in recent memory - end of quarter WHAT - and know it will continue into next week because month end is about 5 days of absolute madness and I'm only on day 2 of it.

There's light at the end of the tunnel, but it's still a long way off

Most of my running lately - because of work, and also some stuff I had to take care of last Sunday - has been in the dark lately. I'm still getting out there, though I have yet to feel well enough (or have time) to lay down a double for the 100 runs in 100 days challenge

..which does have some advantages

With the Fridays I've taken off, I'm already a few runs off of pace to make it to 100, but I hope to make some of that up as the challenge goes on.

I'm not aiming too high this year - just 100 runs will do

The Fridays off have been necessary as I try to keep my weary body in some kind of shape to keep on pushing through the other 6 days, while still fighting off the last of the flu that knocked me flat for a few days in the second week of November.

But staying up past 2am Saturday morning last week to finish a big post didn't help

So I'll try to write something a little more interesting next week, but I have a busy day tomorrow, so I'm going to cut myself a little slack today. 

At least I have some photos to share, even if the rest of the content is a little light

Hopefully this stupid flu and its accompanying exhaustion will all just be water under the bridge very soon.

..or at least that I can get a bit more sleep!

Hope you all have a relaxing weekend!

2021/2022 100 in 100 Post-Mortem

 I never do these posts, and I always sort of regret it later.

..when I have to go searching through raw data to try to figure it all out.

This post is literally all for me, but I'll try to include some pretty pictures. Bear with me, mkay?

I'll try to keep it short, though regular readers will know how that usually turns out

The rules for runs to count: they must be a minimum of 3.0mi (4.82km) OR 30mins, whichever comes first. Up to 3 runs per day count, but the beginning of each run must be 1hr or more after the finish of the last. There are some other finicky bits for people who like to split hairs, but I go by those core rules.

By the numbers:

• Total runs completed in the 100 days (Nov 15, 2021 - Feb 22, 2022): 114
• Total days off during that time: 14 (all but 2 Fridays, plus the day after my Covid booster)
• Total days of running: 86 = 1.325 runs per day

Many of which were on very icy sidewalks and trails

A few additional statistics of interest:

• Longest run streak: 9 days (Dec 18-Dec 26, while I was off work - I got my booster Dec 26th)
• Number of snowshoe runs: 6, including an 8km snowshoe race on the final weekend

With a second run afterward

Some were easy, on well-packed trails

Some were bloody near impossible, like this jaunt 'round the neighbourhood after a huge dump of snow

• Total mileage run: 715.39km (444.52mi)
• Average mileage per run: 6.275km (3.9mi)
• Average mileage per day of running (86 days): 8.318km (5.2mi)
• Longest run: 16.5km (10.25mi)
• Biggest mileage day: Feb 12th - 10.45km + 16.5km = 26.95km
• Shortest run: something like 5.01km (3.11mi) - I did not invoke the 30min minimum on any runs

While most runs were between 5 and 6 kilometers, I usually had at least 1 per week that was 10km+

• Place in the final standings: 19th
• People in the challenge who logged 100+ runs: 100 (quel coincidence, eh?)
• People in the challenge who logged more than 1 run: 450

Some of the mileages and paces were really impressive!

• Night trail runs: a brief survey of my insta posts says 15? It felt like more..

Headlamp optional

• Races: 2 - The Leftovers Race in November 2021 and The Flurry in February 2022

I basically bracketed the challenge with races, as Leftovers was the first Saturday and Flurry the last

• Times my spikes broke on runs: 2

Fortunately without any disastrous consequences, and I've been able to fix them both times

• Coldest temperature run: -24c (-11.2f) with windchill of -30c (-22f)

For a 10km bop down to the market on a Saturday morning

• Times I got caught in a blizzard after dark: 2 or 3, depending on how I want to define "blizzard"

"Easier to see without a headlamp" definitely qualifies

So does "snow piling up on my hat"

• Beautiful sunsets seen: too many to count

Sunrises? Zero

• Times I stepped into a snowbank that swallowed my entire leg: once

Which is - let me tell you - more than enough

• Times I had to wade through close-to-knee-deep meltwater on a flooded trail: twice

Though both were on the same run - December 12th

• Most enjoyable runs: a really snowy one to the market (Feb 5th), and Puslinch Tract (Feb 21)

The marshmallow world

I'd expected ~5km of slush at Puslinch - what I got was 9 joyful kilometers of perfect conditions!

• Snow angels: at least four

Would have been more, but I may have frostbitten my bum a little on one of them..

• Times I did not particularly want to run: too many to count
• Times I did it anyway: all of them.

And I almost always felt better for doing so

• Number of double run days (when I did two qualifying runs in one day): 28
• Number of triple run days: zero (I ran 3 times on Feb 19, but the first was only a ~1km warmup before the snowshoe race, so did not count)
• Longest streak of double run days: 3 in a row, Feb 19-20-21 (Family Day weekend)

One of which was my first jacket-free run of the year!

This was a particularly cold, nasty winter as compared with the last decade or so, and I have been working too many hours to contemplate for the duration, so while it's short of my high water mark of 121 runs (achieved in the 2020/2021 edition) I'm definitely happy with the end result. Now - after a week of taking things a little easier (like only running once per day last weekend) - it's time to start building mileage for the ultra season to come!