I Do Believe It's Spring!

Gorgeous day! Sunny and clear, warm, stunningly lovely outside. A severe danger to today's plans for clean bathrooms and freshly folded laundry.

What a chilly start though. It was still frosty, but the wind was light and the sun is up reasonably early now, so inviting for light clothing. I put my shorts on and a tee, with my running vest.

It was brisk. By the time I got to the bluff, I felt the cold on my legs, and the sun wasn't quite up to being warming yet. I ran along the guardrail on the street side, and cut over onto the shale path at the top of The Stairs. The shale and underlying clay was still firm, very uneven as the footprints of the day before were frozen.

I headed down to the Centre Street bridge, and all the way was chilly. On the bridge itself, I was screened somewhat from the sun by the concrete barrier separating me from the traffic, and could feel the chill in the shaded areas.

Down on the promenade, it was doubly cool, being shaded in many spots, and there being a light westerly wind, to keep the coolness in those shadows.

But busy out there. It was fun. Lots of goodmornings and walkers and runners with dogs. Running under the Louise Bridge, it seemed strange to still see the wall of ice from when the underpass flooded a couple of months ago. Ice is still heavy on the river, and there is little open water yet going west from Prince's Island.

All along the promenade and almost to The Pumphouse, I felt cramping in my shins again. It wasn't to bad, and I knew that once I passed Crowchild the cramps would be gone. It seems to take forever to warm up all over, my hands were crampy and stiff form the cold until at least the Pumphouse, almost thirty minutes of running.

After I passed 14th Street, I decided to try something that I used to do up until I ran the Banff to Jasper relay. In the middle of my interval, I'd kicked up to a sprint, reaching more with my stride while keeping the same cadence, for about a minute. That actually helped with the shin cramps.

I continued to throw in the sprints as I worked my way to Edworthy. Before when I'd done this, I found I would be breathing hard at the end of the fast minute. This time, my breathing held steady: inhale, exhale, every four strides. That was very surprising as I expected to be more winded from pushing harder, but it seemed to not be making much difference.

I wonder how long I could sustain that pace? Perhaps I'm a faster runner than I thought. However, I also feel my hips right now, a bit more than I usually do. It could all be due to the wicked awesome massage I had yesterday too.

Around Angel's Cafe, quick bathroom stop, and heading homeward. The wind was behind me, the sun in front. I was getting warm and my sunglasses were fogging a little. I continued with the one minute sprints every ten minutes or so.

Approaching 10th Street, I held off on it until I crossed the street and was back on the path, and then pushed hard for the minute. One more walk break, then run, up the ramp to the footbridge and to the bottom of the stairs. Up two flights to The Path Under The Stairs, at which time it was time to sprint again.

I suppose the option was there to take it easy on The Path, but what the heck. On the steepest part of the path is where I did the sprint. This time my breathing was definitely affected. I slowed down just past the halfway point (it really takes over two minutes to climb that thing??) but kept pushing all the way to the top. Probably my best climb of The Path in a couple of years.

The temperature had really climbed while I was running. All that frozen clay on the trail along the bluff was now pretty mushy. I ran along the edge, but ventured on to the red shale when it looked drier. Of course, I kicked up a lot of the fine red gravel which made it's way into the back of my shoe, and which I occassionally limped with as I tried to shake it out from under my foot.

My last walk break ended just before I turned up 4th Street, and from there I sprinted the last 150 metres toward home.

Oh right, I forgot to write up Thursday's run, so here's my stats from that one:

Thursday's run:
Distance: 10.07 Time: 58:26
Average speed: 5:48 min/km. (10.34 kph)

Today's run:
Distance: 16.54 Time: 1:31:10
Average speed: 5:34 min/km. (10.89 kph)
Rest distance: 1.00 km. Rest time: 10:00.
Total distance: 17.36 km. Total time: 1:41:10.

Shoes: New Balance 769 (blue).
Today's earworm: An L n K smile.
Weather: Sunny and -2C at the start, 6C at the finish.