Sunday, February 17, 2008

Hot Sunday Morning Run

I wonder what that was all about? I was feeling kind of old and stiff when I got out there, hoping that I'd be able to loosen up a little after a couple of kilometres. It didn't seem like I was running any faster or slower than usual though. But in reality I was cookin'.

The sky was crystal clear for once, with the mountains on the western horizon bright and sharp. The band on Banded Peak was sharp, and the two humps of Moose Mountain looked clean and brilliant. I wish I could identify some of the other peaks.

A slight western breeze made the start a little hard on the face, but after warming up, I stopped noticing it. I think everyone was up for a sunny calm day for running because there were an awful lot of runners out. It was great.

Outbound toward Edworthy was uneventful. I felt like I was covering a lot of ground during the nine minute running intervals. At thirty minutes, I was well past Crowchild.

A quick bathroom stop at Edworthy, a loop around Angel's Cafe, and I was heading back toward downtown. I met Peter-Mark after ten minutes, and we stopped to catch up. We gotta get together one of these Sundays, cuz we both run pretty much the same route.

I didn't try the trail below Spruce Cliff. From across the river, I could see the ice was piled up to almost the top of the fence at one point, and I wasn't keen on the slow, shaky shuffle it would have required to cross it. But I crossed at Crowchild, just to get some distance from the south side of the river.

My timing was interesting, too. I managed to hit a walk break just as I got to the steepest part of The Path Under The Stairs, so I didn't have to try to keep running it. And by the time the walk break was over, I was past it. That left me for a nice strong finish.

Today's run:
Distance: 16.03 km. Time: 1:26:45. Average speed: 11.1 kph. (5:24 min/km)
Rest distance: 977.1 m. Rest time: 9:00.
Total distance: 17.00 km. Total time: 1:35:45.

Shoes: New Balance 1061.

Weather: Mainly sunny and -9C at the start, warming up to -2 by the end.

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