The sun is shining, the snow is virtually all melted, it is above zero, I have the day off and wasn't on call last night so got a solid 8 hours of sleep (unheard of for me) so I have no more excuses. I had a light breakfast, drank some water and a cuppa joe, put on my running gear and drove kiddo to school. From there, I hit the city pathways that run adjacent to the creek where my city got it's name and between the two city golf courses. The creek is melted with only a few ice floes on the portion I was running today. It was very high and running quite fast (we are affectionately known as Speedy Creek, by those in the know for a reason 😆) so I was forced to make a few unplanned detours. I knew the creek had spilled the banks on the other end of the pathway, and suspected I would be detouring over another low lying area within my route, but didn't quite expect so many detours today. I'm hoping to do a longer run on Sunday and the area I would run on this pathway to reach that distance will for sure be under water, so I guess I'll have to rethink where I'm running this weekend.
I decided to run "free" again without audio cues or gps watch today. Although it is quite freeing, I experienced the downside today. I was sucking wind pretty good and wasn't sure if I had just lost that much conditioning or was just running too fast. In all reality, it didn't matter so I just slowed down (or so I thought). Looking back on my splits, I was running a little quick and would definitely say it was not a conversational pace. Funny thing though, by the end, I was still running the same pace according to my splits, but it felt better. I find I have a toxic 20 moreso than a toxic 10 but am guilty of not doing any form of warm up. I think I'll look into some dynamic stretches and try to do them before I start my runs. Maybe it can shorten the darn toxic portion.
All-in-all, I'm super glad I got out and ran a solid 5.5k. I now have the whole day ahead of me. Time to get cleaned up, take care of some errands and head down to the school in time for a pep rally my hubby has set up for two local schools to support our junior hockey team that has made it to the WHL Eastern Conference Chamiopnship. They're going to line both sides of several city blocks, wearing the teams colours, sporting banners and cheering. Whoohoo! Go Broncos Go!
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SaskAlliecat
Graduate10
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Great post SaskAlliecat . Glad everything aligned and you got out 🍾🎉. Sounds like a good one even with the detours! You're not on your own with the Toxic 20 - me too. I do a brisk 5 min(ish) walk using markers on the 4 ways out of the village for my start still have to push to keep going most runs for the first 10-20 mins.
Thanks Annie. It will hopefully get easier with the days getting longer and finally reaching “average” temperatures after a bitterly long cold winter. I have definitely been feeling my lack of running mentally. Even with it being light out when I woke up this morning, my hubby had to pretty much pull me out of bed and put coffee in hand. But now, I actually feel ready to tackle the day! Yay for running!!!
I think that is why I tend to prefer the longer runs. With the short runs, I’m just reaching my stride and then have to stop. That being said, I have been enjoying being able to just go for a quick jaunt and not have to try and plan my day around a long run. Perks to both sides, I guess. Happy Day and Happy runs for sure 😊
Thanks Jan. It is amazing what a difference a run can make. I had last weekend off as well, but found too many excuses to not run so couldn’t let that happen this weekend. I definitely feel much better for it. Now to make sure i don’t make any excuses for Sunday’s run....
Wow, fab post and a good pace. How lovely after all the snow and ice you had. 8 hours sleep... what’s that? 😉
Well done Sask. Looks like it came together nicely! We finally have some sun too - I am actually quite stoked to go out there tomorrow after a stressful week. Running is a good thing...
Yay!!! Great to hear you've got back out there and what a time!! Blimey, I'd be a speck in the distance behind you! What a beautiful view too, enough to put a spring in your step for the rest of the day.
I'm going out tomorrow for my first tentative jogette from the IC.... If it's half as good as yours, I'll be a happy bunny
Seems to be 🙂. Of course the "true" me who craves structure is itching to start following a plan. So I suspect I'll start "loosely" following a plan just to give me some structure when I run. I definitely won't put any pressure on myself to get a set number of runs in per week, but it feels a bit easier now with the longer days and sun shining and above zero temps 👏.....finally!
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My Toxic times vary.. they can be really long or not there at all... 
Phew, that was a bit speedy for an old girl!
A run is a run, right? :O
Oooo run 2 and a weekend 5k
W3R3 - 15 runs to 10km!
First 5K at benchmark pace since return to running
