Running the roads

Another busy work week with travelling to meetings and trying to fit in runs but at least it's a taper week so I don't get too stressed switching and moving runs around. Monday was a day off as always but then Tuesday I was up early to travel to Moncton for more work meetings. This time around my role was more of an observer/reviewer for another scientists stock assessment. It's alot easier looking in and criticizing than being in the spotlight but you try to be as constructive as possible.

The meetings went till late and I didn't get checked into my nice hotel along the Petitcodiac River and trail system it has through the marshes along the river. But 10 minutes later I was on the trail which goes right by the back of the hotel and with a temperature of 9C (50f) it was shorts and a long sleeve shirt with a jacket backup for when the sun went down! Did a nice 10 mile run as an out and back entirely on the wide packed dirt trails all along the river, well away from traffic and housing. It was a beautiful sunny evening with the sun going down at exactly 6:4o on my return leg and the temp immediately started to drop. I was very glad to have the windbreaker for the last 3-4 miles. Completed the run with a set of 8x100m strides to loosen up the legs and felt nice to be running fast in shorts if only briefly.

This morning I set the alarm for 6:45 on the hope that I'd have enough gumption to get the run in early despite just having run only 12 hrs before. Woke up before the alarm and took that as a signal that the body was giving into the evil master. Had a quick breakfast and was off, but much more slowly than the previous evening. It definitely felt like a double doing these two runs so close together and it took me about 1/2 the run (30 min) to feel loosened up even a little bit. But the good part is that it was an absolutely beautiful quiet morning with clear skies, a nice reddish glow from the sunrise and tons of birds along the marshes. I saw mallard ducks, Canada geese, red-winged blackbirds calling to each other in sequence, some kind of weird turkey or pheasant like bird etc... The return leg was a little faster (1 min) than the out part but mostly speeded up a bit because I didn't want to be late for more meetings. Made it, they always start late anyway!

Tonite I was home in the early evening and 'Oh, isn't there volleyball on Weds? You wouldn't mind if I went???' and got in a couple of hours of that to round out the day. The only danger with this sport is the chance of turning an ankle and I'll only go one more week and then stop just to be safe. So far so good, now I just need to keep fooling the body into not realizing that I'm actually cutting back on the running.