Well here it is August already and I've missed a complete month without a blog entry. July was a busy month. On July 4th we went out to ALberta for our vacation. What a trip we had, we spent a total of 18 days out there. 4 in Edmonton, 12 in Canmore and 2 in Jasper. We set a new personal best for the highest summit reached by hiking Mt Fairview at Lake Louise. That summit is 9001 ft above sea level, almost 1000 ft higher than we've been before. We climbed Ha Ling (8000 ft) twice, Mt Lady MacDonald (8000 ft), hiked the Plain of the Six Glaciers, hiked Grassi Lakes, hiked to Parker Ridge, hiked the Sulphur Skyline trail and Mt Edith cavell meadows trail in Jasper. At first I was maintaining my running schedule but after the first week, the hiking, heat and running were taking their toll. I was exhausted and not enjoying myself at all. I had to decide what I wanted to do more while I was out there, hike or run. I can run here so I stopped running. Easy decision.
Its getting harder and harder to return here from the mountains. Whether its New Hampshire's White Mountains or the Rockies, we both feel at home there and not here anymore.
Stacey and I attended the Paul Plakas Canmore fitness weekend again this year. This is a four day event that has two mountain hikes followed by a bootcamp style workout on the last day. We had an awesome time, getting re-acquainted with friends made last year and making some great new friends as well.
During one of my days in Edmonton i had the opportunity to work with Kevin Masters at Aerobic Power. I had my run gain analyzed on video as well as my strength and flexibility tested. Lets just say I wasn't happy with my results. I still heelstrike somewhat, though not as bad as I used to and i'm both inflexible and feeble. lol Fortunately, Kevin gave me lots of insight as well as exercises to improve my strength and flexibility so I drive harder off of the back leg instead of just swinging it forward. Now I have something to do at work besides sitting on my hands. lol
Something I've noticed after this vacation ended was that my recovery is much faster vs last year. Slowly but surely, I'm becoming fitter. My core is still weak though.
So last week was my first full week of getting back into the "swing of things" as far as running goes. Distance-wise it was a 60k week with highlights of a 14k Tuesday, 11k Thursday and a 24k on Sunday with a couple of 5k recovery runs sprinkled in. Everything went well with the runs with the exception of the 24k run. At around the 11k point, I noticed that I was having some pain on top of my left foot. This is the same pain that kept me from running for most of last summer. It went away after a couple of kilometers so I didn't think much about it...until later. That evening, I was having a lot of pain in my foot, especially if I bent my foot upwards in any way. On Monday the pain had eased enough that I could ride the bike home from work with no issues. A little research online told me I may have an inflamed tendon on top of my foot, possibly caused by tightening my laces too much.
On Monday I decided that I was full of piss and vinegar enough to ride to and from work on Tuesday and run the same evening. So my day consisted of a 25k ride to work, a 4k ride at lunchtime (I had a craving for a cinnamon roll), a 15k ride to Bedford after work, followed by a 17k run that evening. Lets just say that the rides went fine but the run was tough. I got a bug in my eye at around 12k and tried to rub it out with my hand. big mistake when you've been sweating a lot (yup, it was hot outside as well). the salt buildup on my hand really caused my eye to burn. ye-oooowwwwwch. i had also forgotten to apply my body glide so i was getting some chafing issues later in the run. I ran the 17k in 1:40:59, which I was happy with, maintained my negative half splits to but it was one of my worst feeling runs yet. I was whipped when I got home and my legs are still mad at me today. plus the foot is still sore despite me deliberately keeping the laces loose on that foot. did I do too much on one day? Possibly but i'd rather go slightly beyond my capabilities and pay for it with sore muscles than to underachieve and not feel a thing. Pain, and by that I mean sore muscles, means progress.
Start runners rant.
Of all the places I've cycled and ran here in the HRM, I gotta say that the most dangerous spot I have to deal with is the entrance to the Tim Hortons on Beaverbank road here in Sackville. Every time I run past there, some tool almost runs me down. It never fails. I don't know if they're hopped up on or craving that crap but for some reason I'm never noticed there and it pisses me off. One of these times I'm going to run right up and over someone's car there.
End runners rant.
Onward and upward folks.
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