Day of LSD's

Okay, not THAT kind of LSD, obviously, but man, could I use some of that now! No, it was Long Slow Distance run day, and I was no different than a lot of the bloggers out there. H-woman went out there and rocked her run, as did Amber and Caitlin. So I thought I should join the trend.

Today's run was 26km...starting to build the numbers as we count down to our various marathons. Mine is in 10 weeks and counting. Others in my group are aiming for Thanksgiving weekend runs, either in the Okanagan, the Royal Victoria or for the lucky few, Chicago. After going to bed a little too late last night (got hooked into Elizabeth - such an awesome movie), I woke up at 7:30 and wolfed down a breakfast of multigrain bagel, PB and Crofter's Superfruit Asian jam. The bagel was the strangest thing though, as it looked like a bagel, but had more of a bread consistency. Maybe it was a bragel, or a basaint...not sure at all! Topped it off with a cup of milk and some coffee and changed to run. The temperature may have only been 13C (mid 50's F) but I didn't want to overheat as I have in the past, so it was little tank and shorts for me.

Love this tank so much, I just ordered another one in black. Forecast was for lower temps (19C or high 60's F) and thunderstorms in the afternoon, but no one said anything about steady drizzle all morning. However, it was most welcome, as it wasn't cold and turned out to be quite refreshing.

The route was a new one (for me, anyway) and I actually had to refer to the map and directions several times throughout the course. But I didn't get us lost! Yay!! We started east, running past Fort Calgary and through Inglewood (one of our oldest neighbourhoods and where I would LOVE to own a place one day), following along the river south, past the bird sanctuary, until we found the bridge to cross the river into Ogden (another old neighbourhood). Up past Beaverdam Flats, and up the hill into Lynnwood, before turning east again and heading back down through the neighbourhood till we connected with a cross-road and turned north. After crossing another bridge, we ended up on the east side of Deerfoot (our freeway) along side the canal (quite nice to run along), heading north until we found the pedestrian bridge over the freeway and back to the west side of the river. Run along the zoo (listening to and smelling the animals made this a treat), heading west until we re-entered our usual running haunt, crossing and finishing 26 at 10th Street NW. That gave us about a km to walk back to Eau Claire, which was a nice cool down, before we really started to stretch. Spent about 10 minutes stretching out some very tight hips, before guzzling a ton of water at the Running Room - my OJ/water/sea salt mix lasted me right to 26, but good thing it wasn't hot out) - and stopping at Jugo Juice for a protein smoothie. I went with the Tropical, because I loves me pineapple and mango! Had a quick foot soak in the kiddie pool (nice and COLD today) before heading for home. And just in time for the foot soak, the clouds parted, it stopped raining and the sun came out. It turned out to be a lovely day.

Good run today, as we kept the pace pretty consistent. Hd to slow down my fast ones a couple of times, and the slowest of our group held her own and kept up till about the 23/24 km marker. Our overall average was 8:13/km, which included our walk breaks (10:1's), and the many, many rolling hills Garrath had us running through. By the way, a pre-run meal of McDonald's...not highly recommended. Not that I didn't feel good, I just didn't feel strong. The best part though is I burned off 2047 calories, so I didn't feel the least bit guilty about the chocolate milk I inhaled later.

Changed, cleaned up and headed down to Mom's, after clearing up my many voice messages regarding my last suite for rent (which is rented - yay!) and touching base with H-woman (awesome woman, by the way) and then off to the hospital. They had Dad in a room finally, but he's in isolation again, as he has MRSA, yet again (haven't we been down this road before??). We didn't have to mask up (as he's not coughing) but we did have to gown and glove. Which Mom was thoroughly confused with...I told her we were playing doctor! Dad seemed a little more off today, but nothing too confusing out of his mouth. Got the list of things to bring (batteries and charger (Dad is obsessed with batteries for his radio), walker, toothbrush, paste, deodorant, travel bag, razor, charger, wallet, etc) as well as arranged for a TV and phone for him. Sounds like he's going to be a resident of Chez Rockyview for at least two weeks. After dropping Mom off, picking up the stuff and dropping it off at the hospital, I came home and ate. All right, so I admit it...I hit McDonald's drive-through again. I'm not proud, but at least I'm owning it.

And now I sit here, trying to keep my eyes open. I think some more water and then it's time for bed. I have to run home at lunch to meet up with the tenant for the last suite (my step-niece, of all people) and then it's just another Monday. Wasn't there a song called that???

Hope everyone had an awesome weekend. Back to the grind.

Later,