It's April!

See? The goldfish survived the winter but are still under protective netting to keep the leaves and raccoons out of the pond!
We have finches nesting in our shrubbery; the robins have arrived and the crocuses are up.
In fact if you watch very closely you will even spot the occasional Gardenus compulsivis poking around trying to tidy up the mess left by the long winter's nap. Hope that I don't get into trouble for telling.

First a little wrap up for the month of March. Finished off the last week with an easy 5 miles yesterday to give me 58 for the week and 287 for the month. Aced the plan for the week as far as mileage went but the hip issue prevented some of the quality stuff that was in the schedule. Things are almost back to normal for the 'injury' and now give it an 8 or 9 out of 10.

The 'long' run today of only 17 miles was completed here at home alone without much difficulty. I played it like the race day as far as the timing went and waited until after our Palm Sunday church service. After a snack of a 1/2 banana, 1/2 bagel and gatorade I was on the road by noon, only 1 hour later than guntime on the 16th (with adjustment for time zone). We had a great day here with bright sunshine but coolish temps around 4C and light-medium northwest winds. The 1st 7 miles were just at an easy pace as I made a loop around the town before a quick stop at home for more drinks and then heading out of town. The next 5 miles were a bit tougher, directly into the wind as I attempted to push the effort a bit. The last 5 with the wind now at my back went nicely and was able to drop the pace to 7:30's to finish the run in 2:17. No problems with the hip although it could be felt as a slight background noise and might interfere with full extension on my stride when I get moving faster. Rated as a good run and I'm looking forward to another easy week as the mileage will fall to the mid-40's.

You might be interested in checking out all the Canadians going to Boston from our province of New Brunswick. The Run NB site has the full list of all 84 runners and some predictions for top ten performances. I'm little miffed about not even getting a mention as I'm often close to the bubble but the competition is stiff and maybe that will just give more incentive to prove the critics wrong, eh?

In blogger land, we're all anxiously awaiting the results from Thomas in his 1st ultra (39.3 miles) at the Connemara marathon in Ireland. Go Thomas, you rock!

Have a great week!