Is it Summer Yet?

It's actually a lovely day out, if a little grey. Windless and clear, and the mountains on the west horizon have a kind of glowing quality, probably because the cloud cover out that way is thinner or higher. It's a lovely sight.

After a short L n K, I was out the door and across the street. Walked a block or so as usual, and then started running as I came up beside the playground. The grey is a little bit bleah, but it's the kind of day, and maybe a kind unique to the prairie, that's calm and mild, a kind of eye-of-the-storm kind of calm.

I took the Centre Street bridge across the river and then down on the promenade. Quiet for such a beautiful morning, but busy enough. The first thirty minutes, as usual, were accompanied by the aches and stiffness that seem to have been accumulating for the last few years. By the time I reached Crowchild I was sufficiently loosened up and those aches were put away for the day.

I stayed on the south side of the river, running along below Spruce Cliff and along the tracks. There were no trains at all this morning. I wonder if that's because of it being a holiday weekend. But when I got to the first crossing, it struck me that I hadn't heard or seen any sign of a train. Usually, there are two or three while I'm out there.

By the time I got to Edworthy I was in head down and go mode. The first walk break after crossing the bridge and heading back toward downtown, I could feel a pull in the hip telling me that I'd been pushing it. I kept it up, too, up to the walk break just before reaching the foot bridge to Prince's Island, so that I can feel it not only in the hip and glutes, but all the way down the back of the legs.

The climb up The Path Under The Stairs was no power run. I was actually pretty slow by then, so more of a shuffle. At the top of the bluff I didn't push all that hard either, since by then there's less than a kilometre to go.

Nice run, finished by a good stretch. About time, too, I've been slacking too much.

Distance: 17.47 Time: 1:30:21
Average speed: 5:10 min/km. (11.64 kph)
Rest distance: .9579 km. Rest time: 10:00.
Total distance: 18.42 km. Total time: 1:40:21.

Shoes: New Balance 769.
Today's earworm: L n K plus something that completely escapes me now.

Weather: cloudy, 12C to start and finishing at 14C.